Geometric Inequalities Anthony Erb Lugo April 2012
Geometric inequalities combine the elegance and cleverness evident in both algebra and geometry to create beautiful expressions in the form of inequalities. We’ll look into these expressions only briefly, so I recommend further reading on your own.
1
Notation & Identities • Given a triangle ABC we denote its sides by a = BC, b = AC and c = BC. • The angles of triangle ABC are denoted as A = ∠BAC, B = ∠ABC and C = ∠BCA. • The altitudes from vertices A, B, C will be denoted as ha , hb and hc , respectively. • The area of the triangle ABC will be denoted as [ABC]. • The orthocenter, incenter, centroid and circumcenter are denoted as H, I, G and O, respectively. • The semiperimeter, inradius and circumradius will be denoted as s, r and R, respectively. • The radii of the excircles tangent to BC, CA, AB will be ra , rb , rc , respectively. • Ravi substitution uses the fact that we can write the sides of a triangle in the form of a = y + z, b = x + z and z = x + y where x, y and z are positive real numbers. • Area formulas include: [ABC] =
p ab sin C a · ha abc = = rs = s(s − a)(s − b)(s − c) = 2 4R 2
Our first theorem follows intuitively Theorem 1.1 (Triangle Inequality): Let ABC be a triangle, then AB + BC > AC follows and so do its cyclic equivalents.