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Algebra Difficulty 4.8 AIME Prove it

Let A,B,C,DA,B,C,D denote four points in space and ABAB the distance between AA and BB, and so on. Show that
AC2+BD2+AD2+BC2AB2+CD2.AC^2+BD^2+AD^2+BC^2\ge AB^2+CD^2.

Solution

Solution 1

If we project points A,B,C,DA,B,C,D onto the plane parallel to AB\overline{AB} and CD\overline{CD}, ABAB and CDCD stay the same but BC,AC,AD,BDBC, AC, AD, BD all decrease, making the inequality sharper. Thus, it suffices to prove the inequality when A,B,C,DA,B,C,D are coplanar:

Let AD=a,AC=b,BC=c,BD=d,AB=m,CD=nAD=a, AC=b, BC=c, BD=d, AB=m, CD=n. We wish to prove that a2+b2+c2+d2m2+n2a^2+b^2+c^2+d^2\ge m^2+n^2. Let us fix BCD\triangle BCD and the length ABAB and let AA vary on the circle centered at BB with radius mm. If we find the minimum value of a2+b2a^2+b^2, which is the only variable quantity, and prove that it is larger than m2+n2c2d2m^2+n^2-c^2-d^2, we will be done.
First, we express a2+b2a^2+b^2 in terms of c,d,m,θ,ϕc,d,m,\theta,\phi, using the Law of Cosines:
a2+b2=c2+d2+2m22cmcos(θ)2dmcos(ϕθ)(a2+b2c2d22m2)2=4m2(c2cos2(θ)+d2cos2(ϕθ)+2cdcos(θ)cos(ϕθ))\begin{align*} a^2+b^2 &= c^2+d^2+2m^2-2cm\cos(\theta)-2dm\cos(\phi-\theta) \\ (a^2+b^2-c^2-d^2-2m^2)^2 &= 4m^2(c^2\cos^2(\theta)+d^2\cos^2(\phi-\theta)+2cd\cos(\theta)\cos(\phi-\theta)) \end{align*}
a2+b2a^2+b^2 is a function of θ\theta, so we take the derivative with respect to θ\theta and obtain that a2+b2a^2+b^2 takes a minimum when
csin(θ)dsin(ϕθ)=0c2sin2(θ)+d2sin2(ϕθ)2cdsin(θ)sin(ϕθ)=0(a2+b2c2d22m2)2=4m2(c2+d2+2cd(cos(θ)cos(ϕθ)sin(θ)sin(ϕθ)))=4m2(c2+d2+2cdcosϕ)=4m2(2c2+2d2n2)\begin{align*} c\sin(\theta)-d\sin(\phi-\theta) &= 0 \\ c^2\sin^2(\theta)+d^2\sin^2(\phi-\theta)-2cd\sin(\theta)\sin(\phi-\theta) &= 0 \\ (a^2+b^2-c^2-d^2-2m^2)^2 &= 4m^2(c^2+d^2+2cd(\cos(\theta)\cos(\phi-\theta)-\sin(\theta)\sin(\phi-\theta))) \\ &= 4m^2(c^2+d^2+2cd\cos{\phi})\\ &= 4m^2(2c^2+2d^2-n^2) \end{align*}
Define p=a2+b2p=a^2+b^2 and q=c2+d2q=c^2+d^2:
(pq2m2)2=4m2(2qn2)p2+q2+4m44m2p+4m2q2pq=8m2q4m2n2p2+q2+4m44m2p4m2q2pq=4m2n2p22pq+q24m2(p+q)=4m2(m2+n2)(pq)2m2=p+qm2n20a2+b2+c2+d2m2+n2\begin{align*} (p-q-2m^2)^2 &= 4m^2(2q-n^2) \\ p^2+q^2+4m^4-4m^2p+4m^2q-2pq &= 8m^2q-4m^2n^2 \\ p^2+q^2+4m^4-4m^2p-4m^2q-2pq &= -4m^2n^2 \\ p^2-2pq+q^2-4m^2(p+q) &= -4m^2(m^2+n^2) \\ \frac{(p-q)^2}{m^2} &= p+q-m^2-n^2\geq 0 \\ a^2+b^2+c^2+d^2 &\geq m^2+n^2 \\ \end{align*}

Solution 2
Let
A=(0,0,0)B=(1,0,0)C=(a,b,c)D=(x,y,z).\begin{align*} A &= (0,0,0) \\ B &= (1,0,0) \\ C &= (a,b,c) \\ D &= (x,y,z). \end{align*}
It is clear that every other case can be reduced to this.
Then, with the distance formula and expanding,
AC2+BD2+AD2+BC2AB2CD2=x22x+1+y2+z2+a22a+b2+c2+2ax+2by+2cz=(x+a1)2+(y+b)2+(z+c)2.0,\begin{align*} AC^2 + BD^2 + AD^2 + BC^2 - AB^2 - CD^2 &= x^2-2x+1+y^2+z^2+a^2-2a+b^2+c^2+2ax+2by+2cz \\ &= (x+a-1)^2 + (y+b)^2 + (z+c)^2. \\ &\geq 0, \end{align*}
which rearranges to the desired inequality.

Solution 3
Because the distances are all squared, we must only prove the result in one dimension, and then we can just add up the three individual inequalities for the xx, yy, and zz dimension to get the desired result. Let xax_a, xbx_b, xcx_c, and xdx_d be the positions of AA, BB, CC, and DD respectively. Then we must show that,
(xaxc)2+(xbxd)2+(xaxd)2+(xbxc)2(xaxb)2+(xcxd)2xa2+xb2+xc2+xd22xaxc+2xbxd+2xaxd+2xbxc2xaxb2xcxd(xa+xb)2+(xc+xd)22(xa+xb)(xc+xd)(xa+xbxcxd)20.\begin{align*} (x_a - x_c)^2 + (x_b-x_d)^2 + (x_a - x_d)^2 + (x_b - x_c)^2 &\geq (x_a - x_b)^2 + (x_c-x_d)^2 \\ x_a^2 + x_b^2 + x_c^2 + x_d^2 &\geq 2x_a x_c + 2x_b x_d + 2x_a x_d + 2x_b x_c - 2x_a x_b - 2x_c x_d \\ (x_a + x_b)^2 + (x_c + x_d)^2 &\geq 2(x_a +x_b)(x_c + x_d)\\ (x_a + x_b - x_c - x_d)^2 &\geq 0. \end{align*}
So we are done.

Solution 4 (Vector bash)
Let aa, bb, cc, dd correspond to the position vectors of points A, B, C, and D, respectively, with respect to an arbitrary origin O. Let us also for simplicity define a2=aa=a2a^2 = a \cdot a = ||a||^2, where a||a|| is the magnitude of vector aa. Because squares are non-negative, a2a^2 is non-negative for all vectors aa. Thus,
(a+bcd)20(a + b - c - d)^2 \ge 0
Because dot product is linear, we expand to obtain
a2+b2+c2+d2+2ab+2cd2ac2ad2bc2cd0,a^2 + b^2 + c^2 + d^2 + 2a \cdot b + 2 c \cdot d - 2 a \cdot c - 2 a \cdot d - 2 b \cdot c - 2 c \cdot d \ge 0,
from which we add a2+b2+c2+d2a^2 + b^2 + c^2 + d^2 to both sides, rearrange, and complete the square to get
(ac)2+(ad)2+(bc)2+(bd)2(ab)2+(cd)2.(a-c)^2 + (a-d)^2 + (b-c)^2 + (b-d)^2 \ge (a-b)^2 + (c-d)^2.
As (ab)2=ab2=AB2=AB2(a-b)^2 = ||a-b||^2 = ||AB||^2 = AB^2 and likewise for the others,
AC2+AD2+BC2+BD2AB2+CD2,AC^2 + AD^2 + BC^2 + BD^2 \ge AB^2 + CD^2,
which is what we wanted to prove.
NOTES:
1. Equality holds when the vector equality a+b=c+da + b = c + d holds, which occurs when A, B, C, and D are the vertices of a (planar) parallelogram, in that order.
2. The algebra employed here is almost identical to the algebra used in Solution 3, which means that Solution 3 is just a simplification of this solution.

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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.