Calculate side AD of tetrahedron, given its volume, angle ACB and 2AD+AC+BC=18

rivasguss9

rivasguss9

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2022-08-19

The question says
The volume of a tetrahedron DABC is 9 cubic units. If A C B = π 6 and 2 A D + A C + B C = 18, then the length AD is
What I could come up with
If I set up a coordinate system with D at origin, and other points with their respective vectors
9 = 1 6 ( a ( b × c ) )
To solve for AD, solving for AC+BC suffices. Cosine rule combined with dot products only leads me to
( A C + B C ) 2 = A B 2 + ( 2 + 3 ) A C B C = | b a | 2 + ( 4 + 2 3 ) 3 ( ( c a ) ( c b ) )
I dont see how this connected to the scalar triple product, nor do I know if this is the correct start/approach to this problem.

Answer & Explanation

Deja Navarro

Deja Navarro

Beginner2022-08-20Added 17 answers

Let h denote the length of perpendicular from point D onto the plane passing through points A,B and C. Using the formula for volume of tetrahedron and application of AM-GM inequality in the following steps
9 = 1 3 [ A B C ] × h = h 12 A C × B C
h × A C × B C = 108 h ( A C + B C 2 ) 2 = h ( 9 A D ) 2
Since,
27 = h 4 ( 9 A D ) 2 h 4 ( 9 h ) 2 ( h + 9 h 2 + 9 h 2 3 ) 3 = 27
Since, equality holds when
9 h 2 = h h = 3 A D = 3  units

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