Given a tetrahedron ABCD, let x=AB⋅CD, y=AC⋅BD, and z=AD⋅BC. Prove that there exists a triangle with edges x,y,z.
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Tags: geometry, 3D geometry, tetrahedron, IMO Shortlist
21.02.2016 20:58
This follows from Ptolemy's inequality. Note that equality can't be achieved since no four points in a tetrahedron are coplanar.
21.02.2016 22:15
Puzzled417 wrote: This follows from Ptolemy's inequality. Note that equality can't be achieved since no four points in a tetrahedron are coplanar. Yes, this is commonly known
22.07.2022 23:22
Interestingly, there is an analogous proof of this to the 2-dimensional case (without reducing to the coplanar case). Ptolemy's inequality can be proven by inversion around one of the points and applying the triangle inequality. Now using sphere inversion, it's possible to show that the tetrahedron ABCD has volume proportional to the area of a triangle with sides AB×CD,AC×BD,AD×BC (see the very end of the first answer to https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1087011/calculating-the-radius-of-the-circumscribed-sphere-of-an-arbitrary-tetrahedron/2413725#2413725). In particular, Heron's formula would yield an imaginary volume for the tetrahedron of ABCD if the problem statement were wrong, which is absurd.