For each positive integer ,
Let be the volume of the regular tetrahedron inscribed in a sphere of volume
and
Let be the volume of the sphere inscribed in the regular tetrahedron of volume which is tangent to the faces of the regular tetrahedron. .
Let and .
If , where and are coprime positive integers, find .
This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try
refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and,
finally, (c)
loading the
non-javascript version of this page
. We're sorry about the hassle.
The volume of the initial sphere V s ( 1 ) = 3 4 π R 3 .
For the area of the initial tetrahedron we have:
Area of the base of the regular tetrahedron A = 4 3 a 2 .
Let A H = H , B C = a and B H = r ∗ ⟹
2 a = 2 3 r ∗ ⟹ r ∗ = 3 a ⟹ the height of the regular tetrahedron H = 3 2 a ⟹ the volume of the initial regular tetrahedron V T ( 1 ) = 6 2 a 3 .
Finding the volume V T ( 1 ) of the initial tetrahedron inscribed in the initial sphere:
In right △ O B H we have O B = O A = R , O H = 3 2 a − R , and B H = 3 a ⟹ R 2 = 3 a 2 + ( 3 2 a − R ) 2 ⟹ a ( a − 2 3 2 R ) = 0 , a > 0 ⟹ a = 2 3 2 R ⟹ V T ( 1 ) = 3 3 π 2 V s ( 1 ) , which is volume of the initial tetrahedron inscribed in the sphere.
Finding the volume of the inscribed sphere V s ( 2 ) :
Erect a perpendicular from point O to a point P on a face of the regular tetrahedron, then O P = r = O H , A P = 3 a , and O A = 3 2 a − r .
In right △ A O P we have: R 2 + 3 a 2 = ( 3 2 a − r ) 2 ⟹ a ( 3 a − 2 3 2 r ) = 0 , a > 0 ⟹ r = 2 6 a and a = 2 3 2 R ⟹ r = 3 R ⟹ V s ( 2 ) = 2 7 1 V s ( 1 ) .
Let a 1 = a = 2 3 2 R , r 1 = R and r 2 = r = 3 R
⟹ a 2 = 2 ( 3 2 ) r 2 = 2 ( 3 2 ) ( 3 1 ) R , r 3 = 3 r 2 = 3 2 R , a 3 = 2 ( 3 2 ) r 3 = 2 ( 3 2 ) ( 3 1 ) 2 R
In General:
r n = ( 3 1 ) n − 1 R and a n = 2 ( 3 2 ) ( 3 1 ) n − 1 R ⟹ V s ( n ) = ( 2 7 1 ) n − 1 V s ( 1 ) and V T ( n ) = 3 3 π 2 ( 2 7 1 ) n − 1 V s ( 1 ) ⟹
V s = V s ( 1 ) ∗ ∑ n = 0 ∞ ( 2 7 1 ) n = 2 6 2 7 V s ( 1 ) and V T = 3 3 π 2 V s ( 1 ) ∗ ∑ n = 0 ∞ ( 2 7 1 ) n = 3 3 π 2 ( 2 6 2 7 ) V s ( 1 ) ⟹ V s ∗ V T = 2 ∗ 1 3 2 π 3 4 ∗ 3 ( V s ( 1 ) ) 2 = b c 2 π a 4 a ( V s ( 1 ) ) 2 ⟹ a + b + c = 1 8 .