Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Prove it

10.3. In the tetrahedron ABCDABCD, the plane angles at vertex AA are equal to 6060^{\circ}. Prove that AB+AC+ADBC+CD+DBAB + AC + AD \leqslant BC + CD + DB.

Solution

10.3. First, let's assume that if BAC=60\angle B A C=60^{\circ}, then AB+AC2BCA B + A C \leqslant 2 B C. For this, consider points BB^{\prime} and CC^{\prime}, which are symmetric to points BB and CC relative to the bisector of angle AA. Since in any convex quadrilateral, the sum of the lengths of the diagonals is greater than the sum of the lengths of a pair of opposite sides, we have BC+BCCC+BBB C + B^{\prime} C^{\prime} \geqslant C C^{\prime} + B B^{\prime} (equality is achieved if AB=ACA B = A C). It remains to note that BC=BCB^{\prime} C^{\prime} = B C, CC=ACC C^{\prime} = A C, and BB=ABB B^{\prime} = A B. Similarly, the inequalities AC+AD2CDA C + A D \leqslant 2 C D and AD+AB2DBA D + A B \leqslant 2 D B can be proven. Adding all these inequalities, we obtain the required result.

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.