Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 6 / 273 of 400 #1273 of 1964

Problem 1273

National olympiad, first round
Geometry Difficulty 6.4 Prove it

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.

This one wants a proof. Work it on paper, then read the official solution and mark yourself. Be honest about it: the record is only any use to you if it is.

Official solution

Solution. Let the vertices of the tetrahedron be denoted by A,B,C,DA, B, C, D; the mirror images mentioned in the problem are denoted by AA^{\prime}, BB^{\prime}, CC^{\prime}, DD^{\prime} respectively.

Let the length of the median from vertex AA be 4a4a, with its foot at SaS_{a}, and the length of the median from vertex BB be 4b4b, with its foot at SbS_{b}, and so on.

!

A median of the tetrahedron connects a vertex to the centroid of the opposite face, so the segments AAA A^{\prime} and BBB B^{\prime} lie on the lines of the medians of the tetrahedron. By the properties of reflection: ASa=SaA=4aA S_{a}=S_{a} A^{\prime}=4a and BSb=SbB=4bB S_{b}=S_{b} B^{\prime}=4b.

It is known that the medians of a tetrahedron intersect at a single point (this is the centroid SS of the tetrahedron), and this point is the point that divides the medians in the ratio 3:1 from the vertex; thus, AS=3aA S=3a, BS=3bB S=3b, and SA=5aS A^{\prime}=5a, SB=5bS B^{\prime}=5b.

Therefore, the triangles ASBA S B and ASBA^{\prime} S B^{\prime} are similar, since ASB=ASB\angle A S B = \angle A^{\prime} S B^{\prime} (vertex angles) and the ratios of two pairs of corresponding sides are equal: ASAS=BSBS=35\frac{A S}{A^{\prime} S}=\frac{B S}{B^{\prime} S}=\frac{3}{5}. By the converse of the parallel intercept theorem, ABABA B \| A^{\prime} B^{\prime} and the ratio of these segments is also equal to the ratio of the similarity of the two triangles, 35\frac{3}{5}.

Similarly, it can be shown that the other edges of the tetrahedron ABCDA^{\prime} B^{\prime} C^{\prime} D^{\prime} are parallel to the corresponding edges of the tetrahedron ABCDA B C D, and their lengths are 53\frac{5}{3} times the lengths of the original tetrahedron's edges. Therefore, the tetrahedron ABCDA^{\prime} B^{\prime} C^{\prime} D^{\prime} is a 53\frac{5}{3}-scaled, SS-centered enlargement of the tetrahedron ABCDA B C D, and the two tetrahedra are similar.

The ratio of their volumes is the cube of the similarity ratio:

VABCDVABCD=(53)3=12527>4 \frac{V_{A^{\prime} B^{\prime} C^{\prime} D^{\prime}}}{V_{A B C D}}=\left(\frac{5}{3}\right)^{3}=\frac{125}{27}>4

Thus, the volume of the tetrahedron defined by the reflections is indeed more than four times the volume of the original tetrahedron.

Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic, difficulty and ordering added by this site.