Solution 1
If we project points A,B,C,D onto the plane parallel to AB and CD, AB and CD stay the same but BC,AC,AD,BD all decrease, making the inequality sharper. Thus, it suffices to prove the inequality when A,B,C,D are coplanar:
Let AD=a,AC=b,BC=c,BD=d,AB=m,CD=n. We wish to prove that a2+b2+c2+d2≥m2+n2. Let us fix △BCD and the length AB and let A vary on the circle centered at B with radius m. If we find the minimum value of a2+b2, which is the only variable quantity, and prove that it is larger than m2+n2−c2−d2, we will be done.
First, we express a2+b2 in terms of c,d,m,θ,ϕ, using the Law of Cosines:
a2+b2(a2+b2−c2−d2−2m2)2=c2+d2+2m2−2cmcos(θ)−2dmcos(ϕ−θ)=4m2(c2cos2(θ)+d2cos2(ϕ−θ)+2cdcos(θ)cos(ϕ−θ))
a2+b2 is a function of θ, so we take the derivative with respect to θ and obtain that a2+b2 takes a minimum when
csin(θ)−dsin(ϕ−θ)c2sin2(θ)+d2sin2(ϕ−θ)−2cdsin(θ)sin(ϕ−θ)(a2+b2−c2−d2−2m2)2=0=0=4m2(c2+d2+2cd(cos(θ)cos(ϕ−θ)−sin(θ)sin(ϕ−θ)))=4m2(c2+d2+2cdcosϕ)=4m2(2c2+2d2−n2)
Define p=a2+b2 and q=c2+d2:
(p−q−2m2)2p2+q2+4m4−4m2p+4m2q−2pqp2+q2+4m4−4m2p−4m2q−2pqp2−2pq+q2−4m2(p+q)m2(p−q)2a2+b2+c2+d2=4m2(2q−n2)=8m2q−4m2n2=−4m2n2=−4m2(m2+n2)=p+q−m2−n2≥0≥m2+n2
Solution 2
Let
ABCD=(0,0,0)=(1,0,0)=(a,b,c)=(x,y,z).
It is clear that every other case can be reduced to this.
Then, with the distance formula and expanding,
AC2+BD2+AD2+BC2−AB2−CD2=x2−2x+1+y2+z2+a2−2a+b2+c2+2ax+2by+2cz=(x+a−1)2+(y+b)2+(z+c)2.≥0,
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 x, y, and z dimension to get the desired result. Let xa, xb, xc, and xd be the positions of A, B, C, and D respectively. Then we must show that,
(xa−xc)2+(xb−xd)2+(xa−xd)2+(xb−xc)2xa2+xb2+xc2+xd2(xa+xb)2+(xc+xd)2(xa+xb−xc−xd)2≥(xa−xb)2+(xc−xd)2≥2xaxc+2xbxd+2xaxd+2xbxc−2xaxb−2xcxd≥2(xa+xb)(xc+xd)≥0.
So we are done.
Solution 4 (Vector bash)
Let a, b, c, d 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=a⋅a=∣∣a∣∣2, where ∣∣a∣∣ is the magnitude of vector a. Because squares are non-negative, a2 is non-negative for all vectors a. Thus,
(a+b−c−d)2≥0
Because dot product is linear, we expand to obtain
a2+b2+c2+d2+2a⋅b+2c⋅d−2a⋅c−2a⋅d−2b⋅c−2c⋅d≥0,
from which we add a2+b2+c2+d2 to both sides, rearrange, and complete the square to get
(a−c)2+(a−d)2+(b−c)2+(b−d)2≥(a−b)2+(c−d)2.
As (a−b)2=∣∣a−b∣∣2=∣∣AB∣∣2=AB2 and likewise for the others,
AC2+AD2+BC2+BD2≥AB2+CD2,
which is what we wanted to prove.
NOTES:
1. Equality holds when the vector equality a+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.
Alternate solutions are always welcome. If you have a different, elegant solution to this problem, please add it to this page.