Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /520 of 520

Geometry Difficulty 8.4 Shortlist Prove it

Proposition 4 The volume of the spatial tetrahedron B1B2B3B4B_{1} B_{2} B_{3} B_{4} is B,PB, P is any point inside this tetrahedron, the orthogonal projections of point PP on the faces opposite to vertices Bi(i=1,2,3,4)B_{i}(i=1,2,3,4) are Ci(i=1,2,3,4)C_{i}(i=1,2,3,4) respectively, the volume of the tetrahedron formed by C1,C2C_{1}, C_{2}, C3,C4C_{3}, C_{4} is CC, then
C127BC \leqslant \frac{1}{27} B

Solution

Prove that if the area of the face opposite vertex Bi(i=1,2,3,4)B_{i}(i=1,2,3,4) is denoted as si(i=1,2,3,4)s_{i}(i=1,2,3,4), and in equation (8) we take xi=PCisi(i=1,2,3,4)x_{i}=\frac{\left|P C_{i}\right|}{s_{i}}(i=1,2,3,4), then the left side of equation (8) is
x1s12+x2s22+x3s32+x4s42=PC1s1+PC2s2+PC3s3+PC4s4=\begin{array}{l} x_{1} s_{1}^{2}+x_{2} s_{2}^{2}+x_{3} s_{3}^{2}+x_{4} s_{4}^{2}= \\ \left|P C_{1}\right| \cdot s_{1}+\left|P C_{2}\right| \cdot s_{2}+\left|P C_{3}\right| \cdot s_{3}+\left|P C_{4}\right| \cdot s_{4}= \end{array}
3B3 B

Furthermore, if the dihedral angles of the tetrahedron PC1C2C3P-C_{1} C_{2} C_{3} are C2PC3=α1,C3PC1=α2,C1PC2=α3\angle C_{2} P C_{3}=\alpha_{1}, \angle C_{3} P C_{1}=\alpha_{2}, \angle C_{1} P C_{2}=\alpha_{3}, then the dihedral angles formed by the edges B4B1,B4B2,B4B3B_{4} B_{1}, B_{4} B_{2}, B_{4} B_{3} are complementary to α1,α2,α3\alpha_{1}, \alpha_{2}, \alpha_{3}. According to the volume formula of a tetrahedron (proof omitted), we have
VPC1C2c3=16PC1PC2PC31cos2α1cos2α2cos2α3+2cosα1cosα2cosα3B2=(VB4B1B2B3)2=29s1s2s31cos2(πα1)cos2(πα2)cos2(πα3)2cos(πα1)cos(πα2)cos(πα3)=29s1s2s31cos2α1cos2α2cos2α3+2cosα1cosα2cosα3VPC1C2C3B2=3PC1PC2PC34s1s2s3 Therefore, \begin{array}{l} V_{P-C_{1} C_{2} c_{3}}=\frac{1}{6}\left|P C_{1}\right|\left|P C_{2}\right|\left|P C_{3}\right| \cdot \\ \sqrt{1-\cos ^{2} \alpha_{1}-\cos ^{2} \alpha_{2}-\cos ^{2} \alpha_{3}+2 \cos \alpha_{1} \cos \alpha_{2} \cos \alpha_{3}} \\ B^{2}=\left(V_{B_{4}-B_{1} B_{2} B_{3}}\right)^{2}=\frac{2}{9} s_{1} s_{2} s_{3} \cdot \\ \sqrt{1-\cos ^{2}\left(\pi-\alpha_{1}\right)-\cos ^{2}\left(\pi-\alpha_{2}\right)-\cos ^{2}\left(\pi-\alpha_{3}\right)-2 \cos \left(\pi-\alpha_{1}\right) \cos \left(\pi-\alpha_{2}\right) \cos \left(\pi-\alpha_{3}\right)}= \\ \frac{2}{9} s_{1} s_{2} s_{3} \sqrt{1-\cos ^{2} \alpha_{1}-\cos ^{2} \alpha_{2}-\cos ^{2} \alpha_{3}+2 \cos \alpha_{1} \cos \alpha_{2} \cos \alpha_{3}} \\ \quad \frac{V_{P-C_{1} C_{2} C_{3}}}{B^{2}}=\frac{3\left|P C_{1}\right|\left|P C_{2}\right|\left|P C_{3}\right|}{4 s_{1} s_{2} s_{3}} \\ \text { Therefore, } \end{array}
x1x2x3=PC1s1PC2s2PC3s3=4VPc1c2C33B2x_{1} x_{2} x_{3}=\frac{\left|P C_{1}\right|}{s_{1}} \cdot \frac{\left|P C_{2}\right|}{s_{2}} \cdot \frac{\left|P C_{3}\right|}{s_{3}}=\frac{4 V_{P-c_{1} c_{2} C_{3}}}{3 B^{2}}

Similarly, we have x2x3x4=4VPc2c3c43B2,x1x3x4=4VPc1c3c43B2,x1x2x4=4VPc1c2c43B2x_{2} x_{3} x_{4}=\frac{4 V_{P-c_{2} c_{3} c_{4}}}{3 B^{2}}, x_{1} x_{3} x_{4}=\frac{4 V_{P-c_{1} c_{3} c_{4}}}{3 B^{2}}, x_{1} x_{2} x_{4}=\frac{4 V_{P-c_{1} c_{2} c_{4}}}{3 B^{2}}, thus we can obtain
x2x3x4+x1x3x4+x1x2x4+x1x2x3=43(VPc2c3c4B2+VPc1c3c4B2+VPc1c2c4B2+VPc1c2c3B2)=4C3B2\begin{array}{l} x_{2} x_{3} x_{4}+x_{1} x_{3} x_{4}+x_{1} x_{2} x_{4}+x_{1} x_{2} x_{3}= \\ \frac{4}{3}\left(\frac{V_{P-c_{2} c_{3} c_{4}}}{B^{2}}+\frac{V_{P-c_{1} c_{3} c_{4}}}{B^{2}}+\frac{V_{P-c_{1} c_{2} c_{4}}}{B^{2}}+\frac{V_{P-c_{1} c_{2} c_{3}}}{B^{2}}\right)= \\ \frac{4 C}{3 B^{2}} \end{array}

Thus, the right side of equation (8) is
9632(x2x3x4+x1x3x4+x1x2x4+x1x2x3)13B43=9632(4C3B2)13B43=9B23C13\begin{array}{l} \frac{9 \sqrt[3]{6}}{2}\left(x_{2} x_{3} x_{4}+x_{1} x_{3} x_{4}+x_{1} x_{2} x_{4}+x_{1} x_{2} x_{3}\right)^{\frac{1}{3}} \cdot B^{\frac{4}{3}}= \\ \frac{9 \sqrt[3]{6}}{2}\left(\frac{4 C}{3 B^{2}}\right)^{\frac{1}{3}} \cdot B^{\frac{4}{3}}= \\ 9 B^{\frac{2}{3}} \cdot C^{\frac{1}{3}} \end{array}

According to the inequality (8), we get
3B9B23C13C127B\begin{aligned} 3 B & \geqslant 9 B^{\frac{2}{3}} \cdot C^{\frac{1}{3}} \\ C & \leqslant \frac{1}{27} B \end{aligned}

Proof complete. \square

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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