Maximum area of a quadrilateral

Geometry Level 4

What is the maximum possible area of a quadrilateral with sides 1 1 , 4 4 , 7 7 and 8 8 ?


The answer is 18.

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2 solutions

Michael Mendrin
Aug 5, 2015

Given the four sides of a quadrilateral, it's the cyclic quadrilateral that has the maximum area. Use Brahmagupta's formula to compute the area of the cyclic quadrilateral, i.e. if s = 1 2 ( a + b + c + d ) s=\frac { 1 }{ 2 } \left( a+b+c+d \right) , then

A r e a = ( s a ) ( s b ) ( s c ) ( s d ) Area=\sqrt { \left( s-a \right) \left( s-b \right) \left( s-c \right) \left( s-d \right) }

Edit: Order of the sides does not matter for the area of a cyclic quadrilateral.

Using Bretschneider's formula ,

( s a ) ( s b ) ( s c ) ( s d ) a b c d cos 2 ( α + γ 2 ) \sqrt{(s-a)(s-b)(s-c)(s-d)-abcd \cos^{2} \left( \frac{ \alpha+\gamma}{2} \right) }

Here α \alpha and γ \gamma are two opposite angles of the quadrilateral.

For the area to be maximum,

a b c d cos 2 ( α + γ 2 ) abcd \cos^{2} \left( \frac{ \alpha+\gamma}{2} \right)

This expression must be minimum and only in a cyclic quadrilateral opposite angle's sum is 18 0 180^\circ . Therefore,

a b c d cos 2 ( α + γ 2 ) = 0 abcd \cos^{2} \left( \frac{ \alpha+\gamma}{2} \right)=0

And the area is thus maximum for cyclic quadrilateral.

I thought this must be provided to make solution complete.

Akshat Sharda - 5 years, 3 months ago
Ahmad Khamis
Aug 5, 2015

If two sides of a triangle are of the lengths given, then the triangle has maximum area when the two sides are at right angles. If the sides have lengths 7 7 and 4 4 , then the maximum area is 14 14 and the hypotenuse is of length 65 \sqrt{65} . If the sides have lengths 8 8 and 1 1 , then the maximum area is 4 4 and the hypotenuse is also of length 65 \sqrt{65} . We can put the hypotenuses together to make a quadrilateral. The quadrilateral will have a maximum area of 14 + 4 = 18 14 + 4 = 18 .

Moderator note:

You seem to be making the assumption that the order of sides are 1, 4, 7, 8 in that order. How you do you know that there isn't a quadrilateral with larger area, whose sides are (in order) 1, 4, 8, 7 ?

How can we generalize this approach to any 4 lengths? What if we do not get a 2 + b 2 = c 2 + d 2 a^2 + b^2 = c^2 + d^2 ?

The numbers do not have to be in that order. The numbers can be on any side of the quadrilateral.

Ahmad Khamis - 5 years, 10 months ago

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