The length of a line segment within a triangle is less than the perimeter of the triangle.

127 Views Asked by At

Intuitively the proposition is true, but how to prove it? By analytic geometry this boils down to proving the inequality

$\left[(\sum_{i=1}^3(t_i'-t_i)x_i)^2+(\sum_{i=1}^3(t_i'-t_i)y_i)^2\right]^{\frac{1}{2}}\leq\sqrt{(x_1-x_2)^2+(y_1-y_2)^2}+\sqrt{(x_1-x_3)^2+(y_1-y_3)^2}+\sqrt{(x_2-x_3)^2+(y_2-y_3)^2}$

where $\sum_{i=1}^3t_i'=\sum_{i=1}^3t_i=1$ and $t_i',t_i\geq 0,i=1,2,3,$

and the inequality is strict when the triangle in question is a proper one. But I can't prove it.

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On BEST ANSWER

If $a = t_1 x + t_2 y + t_3z$ and $b = s_1 x + s_2y + s_3z$ are two points in the triangle then $$ \Vert a - b \Vert = \Vert (t_1 - s_1) x + (t_2 - s_2) y + (t_3 - s_3) z \Vert $$ Since $t_3 - s_3 = (1-t_1-t_2) - (1- s_1-s_2) = -t_1-t_2+s_1+s_2$, this is equal to $$ \begin{align} \Vert a - b \Vert &= \Vert (t_1 - s_1) (x-z) + (t_2 - s_2) (y-z) \Vert \\ &\le |t_1 - s_1| \cdot \Vert x - z \Vert + |t_2 - s_2| \cdot \Vert y - z\Vert \\ &\le \Vert x -z \Vert + \Vert y -z \Vert \\ &\le \Vert x -z \Vert + \Vert y -z \Vert + \Vert x -y\Vert \, , \end{align} $$ using the triangle(!) inequality for the Euclidean norm, and that $-1 \le t_i - s_i \le 1$ for $i =1, 2, 3$.

The inequality is strict unless $x=y=z$.


A better estimate is possible: At least two of the three numbers $t_i - s_i$ must have the same sign. Without loss of generality assume that $t_1-s_1$ and $t_2 - s_2$ have the same sign. Also let $$ L = \max(\Vert x-z \Vert, \Vert y-z \Vert, \Vert x-y \Vert) $$ be the longest side length. Then the above calculation shows that $$ \begin{align} \Vert a-b \Vert &\le |t_1 - s_1| \cdot \Vert x - z \Vert + |t_2 - s_2| \cdot \Vert y - z\Vert \\ &\le \left( |t_1 - s_1| + |t_2 - s_2|\right) \cdot L \\ &= \left( |(t_1 - s_1) + (t_2 - s_2)|\right) \cdot L \\ &= \left( |s_3 -t_3|\right) \cdot L \\ &\le L \, , \end{align} $$ i.e. the length of every segment is at most the length of the longest triangle side. It follows that $$ \Vert a-b \Vert \le \frac 12 \bigl( \Vert x -z \Vert + \Vert y -z \Vert + \Vert x -y\Vert \bigr) \, . $$