I found this in a textbook without a solution and I wasnt able to solve it myself. Let ABCD be

Lydia Carey

Lydia Carey

Answered question

2022-06-11

I found this in a textbook without a solution and I wasnt able to solve it myself.

Let ABCD be a tetrahedron with all faces acute. Let E be the mid point of the longer arc AB on a circle ABD. Let F be the mid point of the longer arc BC on a circle BCD. Let G be the mid point of the longer arc AC on a circle ACD.

Show that points D,E,F,G lie on a circle.

My approach to that was to try to show these point were co-planear. Since they all lie on one sphere (the one with inscribed tetrahedron ABCD) that would solve the problem. Needles to say I failed at that.

Answer & Explanation

boomzwamhc

boomzwamhc

Beginner2022-06-12Added 17 answers

Let a = D A , b = D B , c = D C and a , b , c be corresponding magnitudes.

Let us look at what happens on the plane holding circle ABD. Let X be the circle's center and E be the mid point of the shorter arc AB. It is not hard to see
E D B = 1 2 E X B = 1 2 A X E = A D E
This implies D E is the angular bisector of A D B and D E is pointing along the direction a a + b b . Since DE is perpendicular to D E , D E is pointing along the direction a a b b .

To proceed, we will re-express this fact in terms of barycentric coordinates.

For any P R 3 , the barycentric coorindates of P with respect to tetrahedron ABCD is a 4-tuple ( α P , β P , γ P , δ P ) which satisfies:
α P + β P + γ P + δ P = 1  and  P = α P A + β P B + γ P C + δ P D
In particular, the barycentric coordinates for D is (0,0,0,1).

Let's look at point E. Since E lies on the plane holding ABD, γ E = 0. Since DE is pointing along the direction a a b b , we find α E : β E = 1 a : 1 b . From this, we can deduce there is a λ E such that
( α E , β E , γ E , δ E ) = ( λ E a , λ E b , 0 , 1 + λ E a b a b )
By a similar argument, we can find λ F and λ G such that
( α F , β F , γ F , δ F ) = ( 0 , λ F b , λ F c , 1 + λ F b c b c ) ( α G , β G , γ G , δ G ) = ( λ G a , 0 , λ G c , 1 + λ G c a c a )
In terms of barycentric coordinates, D , E , F , G are coplanar when and only when following determinant evaluates to zero.
D = d e f | α E β E γ E δ E α F β F γ F δ F α G β G γ G δ G α D β D γ D δ D | = | α E β E γ E δ E α F β F γ F δ F α G β G γ G δ G 0 0 0 1 | = | α E β E γ E α F β F γ F α G β G γ G |
Substitute above expression of barycentric coordinates of E , F , G into last determinant, we find
D = λ E λ F λ G | 1 a 1 b 0 0 1 b 1 c 1 a 0 1 c | = 0
as the rows of determinant on RHS sum to zero.

From this, we can conclude D , E , F , G are coplanar. Since D , E , F , G lie on the intersection of a sphere and a plane, they lie on a circle.

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