Olympiad Maths Prep

Track / Stage 5 / 156 of 400 #756 of 2000

Problem 756

AIME late
Geometry Difficulty 5.4 Find the answer

2. (1992 National High School Competition Question) Let the areas of the four faces of a tetrahedron be S1,S2,S3,S4S_{1}, S_{2}, S_{3}, S_{4}, and their maximum value be SS. Let λ=i=14SiS\lambda=\frac{\sum_{i=1}^{4} S_{i}}{S}, then λ\lambda must satisfy ( ).
A. 2<λ42<\lambda \leqslant 4
B. 3<λ<43<\lambda<4
C. 2.5<λ4.52.5<\lambda \leqslant 4.5
D. 3.5<λ<5.53.5<\lambda<5.5

Official solution

2. A. Reason: Since SiS(i=1,2,3,4)S_{i} \leqslant S (i=1,2,3,4), we have i=14Si4S\sum_{i=1}^{4} S_{i} \leqslant 4 S, and thus λ=i=14SiS4\lambda=\frac{\sum_{i=1}^{4} S_{i}}{S} \leqslant 4. In particular, when the tetrahedron is a regular tetrahedron, the equality holds in the above expression, thereby negating B.

Consider any regular triangular pyramid where the plane angles of the dihedral angles between the lateral faces and the base are all 4545^{\circ}. Let S4S_{4} represent the area of the base of this regular triangular pyramid. Then, S=S4=(S1+S2+S3)cos45=22(S1+S2+S3)S=S_{4}=\left(S_{1}+S_{2}+S_{3}\right) \cdot \cos 45^{\circ}=\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}\left(S_{1}+S_{2}+S_{3}\right), so S1+S2+S3=2S,S1+S2+S3+S4=(1+2)SS_{1}+S_{2}+S_{3}=\sqrt{2} S, S_{1}+S_{2}+S_{3}+S_{4}=(1+\sqrt{2}) S. At this point, λ=i=1nSiS=1+2<2.5\lambda=\frac{\sum_{i=1}^{n} S_{i}}{S}=1+\sqrt{2}<2.5, thereby negating C and D.

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