Triangle Inequalities

Geometry Level 4

It can be shown that any triangle with area A A and perimeter P P must satisfy P 2 12 3 A . P^2 \ge 12\sqrt{3}\cdot A. Does there exist any positive integer n 2 n \ne 2 and constant k > 0 k > 0 such that P n k A ? P^n \ge k A?

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1 solution

Eli Ross Staff
Jun 14, 2016

This problem came about because someone mentioned they thought an inequality of the form P 3 k A P^3 \ge k A was true. What's wrong with this at a quick glance? The units don't work out! It doesn't make sense that you could relate units 3 \text{units}^3 and units 2 \text{units}^2 in this way; that's the intuitive reason why n = 2 n=2 gives the only valid inequality here.

For a more algebraic approach, note that P 2 = 12 3 A P^2 = 12\sqrt{3}\cdot A holds true for an equilateral triangle, so we can have P n A = ( 12 3 ) n / 2 A n / 2 1 . \frac{P^n}{A} = \left(12\sqrt{3}\right)^{n/2} \cdot A^{n/2 - 1}. Taking A 0 A \rightarrow 0 and A A\rightarrow \infty shows it is impossible for this ratio to always be k . \ge k. (It's probably worth handling the n = 1 n=1 case separately, but it also follows from the same logic.)

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