Problem:
Given a regular tetrahedron , prove that it is contained in the three spheres on diameters , and . Is this true for any tetrahedron?
Problem:
Given a regular tetrahedron , prove that it is contained in the three spheres on diameters , and . Is this true for any tetrahedron?
Solution:
Let the tetrahedron have side . Then the center is a distance from the center of each of the spheres, so it is contained in each of the spheres. We now use convexity.
Two circles with diameters two of the sides of a triangle cover the triangle (consider the foot of the altitude to the third side), so faces and are certainly contained in the spheres. Consider face . The sphere on passes through the midpoints of and , and through , so it contains the triangle formed by these three points (by convexity). But the rest of is contained in the sphere on . Similarly for the face . Hence all the faces are contained in the spheres. But now take any point inside the tetrahedron. Extend to meet a face at . lies in one of the spheres, but also lies in the sphere and hence all points on , including (by convexity).
False in general. Take to be a plane square, then no points on are in the spheres except and (and we can obviously distort this slightly to make it less degenerate).