Ever so equable I

Geometry Level 3

How many distinct cuboids are there whose volume, surface area and total edge length are all numerically equal?

No tricks - all the cuboid's dimensions should be positive, real numbers (not necessarily integers). Two cuboids are considered distinct if one cannot be obtained from the other by rotation (or by re-ordering the dimensions).

A few examples for clarity: the cuboid with dimensions 1 × 1 × 1 1 \times 1 \times 1 (ie the unit cube) has volume 1 1 , surface area 6 6 and total edge length 12 12 .

The cuboid with dimensions 4 × 8 × 8 4 \times 8 \times 8 has volume and surface area 256 256 , but total edge length 80 80 .

The cuboid with dimensions 1 × 2 × 4 1 \times 2 \times 4 has surface area and total edge length 28 28 , but volume 8 8 .

More than one, but finitely many Infinitely many None One

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2 solutions

Mark Hennings
Jun 10, 2019

We want to find positive real numbers x , y , z x,y,z such that x y z = 2 ( x y + x z + y z ) = 4 ( x + y + z ) xyz = 2(xy + xz + yz) = 4(x+y+z) , so that x + y + z = u x y + x z + y z = 2 u x y z = 4 u x+y+z \; =\; u \hspace{2cm} xy + xz + yz \; = \; 2u \hspace{2cm} xyz \; = \; 4u for some real u u ., This means that the cubic polynomial f u ( X ) = X 3 u X 2 + 2 u X 4 u f_u(X) \; = \; X^3 - uX^2 + 2uX - 4u must have three positive real zeros x , y , z x,y,z . Thus we deduce that the cubic discriminant Δ 3 = 12 u 4 + 112 u 3 432 u 2 = 4 u 2 ( 3 u 2 28 u + 108 ) \Delta_3 = -12u^4 + 112u^3 - 432u^2 \; = \; -4u^2(3u^2 - 28u + 108) must be nonnegative. SInce the roots are all positive, we must have u > 0 u > 0 (so that the coefficients of f u ( X ) f_u(X) alternate in sign). But the quadratic 3 u 2 28 u + 108 3u^2 - 28u + 108 has discriminant 512 < 0 -512 < 0 and hence we deduce that 3 u 2 28 u + 108 > 0 3u^2 - 28u + 108 \,>\, 0 for all u u . Thus the only value of u u for which Δ 0 \Delta \ge 0 is u = 0 u=0 , which implies that x = y = z = 0 x=y=z=0 , and we do not have a proper cuboid in this case.

Thus there are no cuboids with the required property.

Great solution! Thanks for the write-up.

Chris Lewis - 2 years ago

Did you have a go at the second and third problems? I'd be especially interested if there's an elegant solution for the third one in particular (I have a solution, but it's rather long-winded).

Chris Lewis - 2 years ago

Let a a , b b , c c be the dimensions of the cuboid. Then the volume V V , the surface area S S and the total edge length L L are:
( 1 ) V = a b c ( 2 ) S = 2 ( a b + b c + c a ) ( 3 ) L = 4 ( a + b + c ) \begin{aligned} (1) \ \ \ \ \ V& =abc \\ (2) \ \ \ \ \ S& =2\left( ab+bc+ca \right) \\ (3) \ \ \ \ \ L& =4\left( a+b+c \right) \\ \end{aligned}

We want V = S = L V=S=L .

Then,

( 1 ) , ( 2 ) 1 c = 1 2 1 a 1 b ( 1 ) , ( 3 ) 1 c = a b 4 4 a + 4 b } 1 2 1 a 1 b = a b 4 4 a + 4 b ( b 2 2 b + 4 ) a 2 + 2 b ( 2 b ) a + 4 b 2 = 0 \begin{aligned} \left. \begin{matrix} \left( 1 \right),\left( 2 \right)\Rightarrow \dfrac{1}{c}=\dfrac{1}{2}-\dfrac{1}{a}-\dfrac{1}{b} \\ \ \ \\ \left( 1 \right),\left( 3 \right)\Rightarrow \dfrac{1}{c}=\dfrac{ab-4}{4a+4b} \\ \end{matrix} \right\} & \Rightarrow \dfrac{1}{2}-\dfrac{1}{a}-\dfrac{1}{b}=\dfrac{ab-4}{4a+4b} \\ & \ \ \\& \Leftrightarrow \left( {{b}^{2}}-2b+4 \right){{a}^{2}}+2b\left( 2-b \right)a+4{{b}^{2}}=0 \\ \end{aligned}

This quadratic, in terms of a a , must have non-negative discriminant Δ Δ , but Δ = 4 b 2 ( 3 b 2 + 4 b 12 ) < 0 \Delta =4{{b}^{2}}\left( -3{{b}^{2}}+4b-12 \right)<0 , for all b > 0 b>0 .

Hence, there are no triples of positive real numbers simultaneously satisfying ( 1 ) (1) , ( 2 ) (2) and ( 3 ) (3) , i.e. there are no cuboids with the required property. The answer is N o n e \boxed{None} .

Very nice writeup - thanks for sharing a different approach.

Chris Lewis - 10 months, 3 weeks ago

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Thank you! I'm glad you liked it. It was an interesting problem. Now, I'll go for your #II and #III.

Thanos Petropoulos - 10 months, 3 weeks ago

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