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Geometry Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Find the answer

For a convex quadrilateral PP, let DD denote the sum of the lengths of its diagonals and let SS denote its perimeter. Determine, with proof, all possible values of SD\frac{S}{D}.

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

Suppose we have a convex quadrilateral ABCDA B C D with diagonals ACA C and BDB D intersecting at EE. To prove the lower bound, note that by the triangle inequality, AB+BC>ACA B+B C>A C and AD+DC>ACA D+D C>A C, so S=AB+BC+AD+DC>2ACS=A B+B C+A D+D C>2 A C. Similarly, S>2BDS>2 B D, so 2S>2AC+2BD=2D2 S>2 A C+2 B D=2 D gives S>DS>D. To prove the upper bound, note that again by the triangle inequality, AE+EB>AB,CE+BE>BC,AE+ED>AD,CE+ED>CDA E+E B>A B, C E+B E>B C, A E+E D>A D, C E+E D>C D. Adding these yields 2(AE+EC+BE+ED)>AB+BC+AD+CD=S2(A E+E C+B E+E D)>A B+B C+A D+C D=S. Now since ABCDA B C D is convex, EE is inside the quadrilateral, so AE+EC=ACA E+E C=A C and BE+ED=BDB E+E D=B D. Thus 2(AC+BD)=D>S2(A C+B D)=D>S. To achieve every real value in this range, first consider a square ABCDA B C D. This has SD=2\frac{S}{D}=\sqrt{2}. Suppose now that we have a rectangle with AB=CD=1A B=C D=1 and BC=AD=xB C=A D=x, where 0<x10<x \leq 1. As xx approaches 0, SD\frac{S}{D} gets arbitrarily close to 1, so by intermediate value theorem, we hit every value SD(1,2]\frac{S}{D} \in(1, \sqrt{2}]. To achieve the other values, we let AB=BC=CD=DA=1A B=B C=C D=D A=1 and let θ=mABE\theta=m \angle A B E vary from 4545^{\circ} down to 00^{\circ} (i.e. a rhombus that gets thinner). This means AC=2sinθA C=2 \sin \theta and BD=2cosθB D=2 \cos \theta. We have S=4S=4 and D=2(sinθ+cosθ)D=2(\sin \theta+\cos \theta). When θ=45,SD=2\theta=45^{\circ}, \frac{S}{D}=\sqrt{2}, and when θ=0,SD=2\theta=0^{\circ}, \frac{S}{D}=2. Thus by the intermediate value theorem, we are able to choose θ\theta to obtain any value in the range [2,2)[\sqrt{2}, 2). Putting this construction together with the strict upper and lower bounds, we find that all possible values of SD\frac{S}{D} are all real values in the open interval (1,2)(1,2).

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