Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 4.3 AIME Prove it

Two points PP and QQ lie in the interior of a regular tetrahedron ABCDABCD. Prove that angle PAQ<60PAQ < 60^\circ.

Solution

Solution 1
Let the side length of the regular tetrahedron be aa. Link and extend APAP to meet the plane containing triangle BCDBCD at EE; link AQAQ and extend it to meet the same plane at FF. We know that EE and FF are inside triangle BCDBCD and that PAQ=EAF\angle PAQ = \angle EAF
Now let’s look at the plane containing triangle BCDBCD with points EE and FF inside the triangle. Link and extend EFEF on both sides to meet the sides of the triangle BCDBCD at II and JJ, II on BCBC and JJ on DCDC. We have EAF<IAJ\angle EAF < \angle IAJ
But since EE and FF are interior of the tetrahedron, points II and JJ cannot be both at the vertices and IJ<aIJ < a, IAJ<BAD=60\angle IAJ < \angle BAD = 60. Therefore, PAQ<60\angle PAQ < 60.
Solution with graphs posted at
http://www.cut-the-knot.org/wiki-math/index.php?n=MathematicalOlympiads.USA1973Problem1
Alternate solutions are always welcome. If you have a different, elegant solution to this problem, please add it to this page.
hurdler: Remark on solution 1: This proof is not rigorous, in the very last step. The last step needs more justification.

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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.