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1970 Canadian MO Problems/Problem 5

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Problem

A quadrilateral has one vertex on each side of a square of side-length 1. Show that the lengths a, b, c and d of the sides of the quadrilateral satisfy the inequalities 2\le a^2+b^2+c^2+d^2\le 4.


Solution

Let the quadrilateral be ABCD. Suppose A is a distance w, 1-w from the two nearest vertices of the square. Define x, y, z similarly. Then the sum of the squares of the sides of the quadrilateral is w^2 + (1-w)^2 + x^2 + (1-x)^2 + y^2 + (1-y)^2 + z^2 + (1-z)^2. But w^2 + (1-w)^2 = 2(w - \frac{1}{2})^2 + \frac{1}{2} which is at least \frac{1}{2} and at most 1. Similarly for the other pairs of terms, and hence proved.


1970 Canadian MO (Problems)
Preceded by
Problem 4
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Followed by
Problem 6


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