Reflect every vertex of a tetrahedron onto the centroid of the opposite face. Show that the volume of the tetrahedron defined by the reflections is at least four times the volume of the original tetrahedron.
Problem 1273
Official solution
Solution. Let the vertices of the tetrahedron be denoted by ; the mirror images mentioned in the problem are denoted by , , , respectively.
Let the length of the median from vertex be , with its foot at , and the length of the median from vertex be , with its foot at , and so on.
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A median of the tetrahedron connects a vertex to the centroid of the opposite face, so the segments and lie on the lines of the medians of the tetrahedron. By the properties of reflection: and .
It is known that the medians of a tetrahedron intersect at a single point (this is the centroid of the tetrahedron), and this point is the point that divides the medians in the ratio 3:1 from the vertex; thus, , , and , .
Therefore, the triangles and are similar, since (vertex angles) and the ratios of two pairs of corresponding sides are equal: . By the converse of the parallel intercept theorem, and the ratio of these segments is also equal to the ratio of the similarity of the two triangles, .
Similarly, it can be shown that the other edges of the tetrahedron are parallel to the corresponding edges of the tetrahedron , and their lengths are times the lengths of the original tetrahedron's edges. Therefore, the tetrahedron is a -scaled, -centered enlargement of the tetrahedron , and the two tetrahedra are similar.
The ratio of their volumes is the cube of the similarity ratio:
Thus, the volume of the tetrahedron defined by the reflections is indeed more than four times the volume of the original tetrahedron.