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Geometry Difficulty 6.6 National olympiad Find the answer

Example 3 Let PP be a point inside (including the boundary) a regular tetrahedron TT with volume 1. Draw 4 planes through PP parallel to the 4 faces of TT, dividing TT into 14 pieces. Let f(P)f(P) be the sum of the volumes of those pieces which are neither tetrahedra nor parallelepipeds. Find the range of f(P)f(P). (31st IMO)

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

Let the distances from point PP to the four faces of the regular tetrahedron ABCDABCD be d1,d2,d3,d4d_{1}, d_{2}, d_{3}, d_{4}.
Let xi=dihx_{i}=\frac{d_{i}}{h}, where hh is the height of the regular tetrahedron. Then i=14xi=1\sum_{i=1}^{4} x_{i}=1.
Since the 14 pieces divided by TT include 4 tetrahedra with volumes xi3x_{i}^{3} each. Additionally, there are 4 parallelepipeds with volumes 6ji1j4xj6 \prod_{\substack{j \neq i \\ 1 \leqslant j \leqslant 4}} x_{j} each (i=1,2,3,4)(i=1,2,3,4). For example, a parallelepiped can be formed by the 3 edges starting from AA, and by symmetry, 4 parallelepipeds can be formed. Thus,
f(P)=1i=14xi361i<j<k4xixjxkf(P)=1-\sum_{i=1}^{4} x_{i}^{3}-6 \sum_{1 \leqslant i<j<k \leqslant 4} x_{i} x_{j} x_{k}

Clearly, f(P)0f(P) \geqslant 0.
Furthermore, assume x1+x212x_{1}+x_{2} \leqslant \frac{1}{2}. Let x1+x2=t12,x1x2=u0,x3x4=x_{1}+x_{2}=t \leqslant \frac{1}{2}, x_{1} x_{2}=u \geqslant 0, x_{3} x_{4}= v0v \geqslant 0. By i=14xi=1\sum_{i=1}^{4} x_{i}=1, we have
i=14xi3=(t33tu)+(1t)33(1t)v1i<j<k4xixjxk=(1t)u+tv\begin{array}{c} \sum_{i=1}^{4} x_{i}^{3}=\left(t^{3}-3 t u\right)+(1-t)^{3}-3(1-t) v \\ \sum_{1 \leqslant i<j<k \leqslant 4} x_{i} x_{j} x_{k}=(1-t) u+t v \end{array}

Therefore,
1f(P)=13t+3t2+3(23t)u+3(3t1)v13t+3t2+3(3t1)v\begin{aligned} 1-f(P) & =1-3 t+3 t^{2}+3(2-3 t) u+3(3 t-1) v \\ & \geqslant 1-3 t+3 t^{2}+3(3 t-1) v \end{aligned}
(1) If 13<t12\frac{1}{3}<t \leqslant \frac{1}{2}, then
3t10,1f(P)13t+3t2143 t-1 \geqslant 0,1-f(P) \geqslant 1-3 t+3 t^{2} \geqslant \frac{1}{4}

The equality holds when t=12,u=v=0t=\frac{1}{2}, u=v=0, i.e., when PP is the midpoint of an edge.
(2) If 0t130 \leqslant t \leqslant \frac{1}{3}, then 3t103 t-1 \leqslant 0, and v=x3x4(x3+x4)24=(1t)24v=x_{3} x_{4} \leqslant \frac{\left(x_{3}+x_{4}\right)^{2}}{4}=\frac{(1-t)^{2}}{4}; so
1f(P)13t+3t2+3(3t1)(1t)24=3(3t2+13t)t4+1414\begin{aligned} 1-f(P) & \geqslant 1-3 t+3 t^{2}+3(3 t-1) \cdot \frac{(1-t)^{2}}{4} \\ & =\frac{3\left(3 t^{2}+1-3 t\right) t}{4}+\frac{1}{4} \geqslant \frac{1}{4} \end{aligned}

Therefore, in either case, we have 0f(P)340 \leqslant f(P) \leqslant \frac{3}{4}.
Moreover, when PP is a vertex of the tetrahedron, f(P)=0f(P)=0; when PP is the midpoint of an edge of the tetrahedron, f(P)=f(P)= 34\frac{3}{4}

In summary, the range of f(P)f(P) is 0f(P)340 \leqslant f(P) \leqslant \frac{3}{4}.

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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.