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A optimization problem:

Get the maximum volume of a tetrahedron its 4 vertices on the surface of cube whose edge length is 1 .

  • From the geometrical intutition ,we can get :

    Selecting $B,A_{1},B_{1},C_{1},$ be the vertices ,then the tetrahedron has maximum volume,and the maximum value is $\frac{1}{3}.$ enter image description here

Elliot
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2 Answers2

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Without loss of generality, take one of the vertices to be the origin. Taking $v_1,v_2,v_3$ to be the coordinates of the remaining vertices, we note that the volume of the tetrahedron is given by $$ V = \frac 16| \det[v_1, v_2, v_3]| $$ This is a quantity on $9$ constrained variables, which you could presumably solve using Lagrange multipliers.

Ben Grossmann
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Given an point $P \in \mathbb{R}^3$, let $(x_P,y_P,z_P) = (u_P +\frac12, v_P + \frac12, w_P + \frac12 )$ be its coordinates. In order for this point $P$ lying on or inside the cube $[0,1]^3$, the coordinates need to satisfy:

$$ 0 \le x_P, y_P, z_P \le 1 \quad\iff\quad |u_P|, |v_P|, |w_P| \le \frac12 \tag{*1}$$

Now pick any four points $A, B, C, D$ from $[0,1]^3$ and construct a tetrahedron $\Delta_{ABCD}$. The volume of $\Delta_{ABCD}$ will be given by the formula:

$$\text{Vol}(\Delta_{ABCD}) = \frac16 \left|\det\begin{bmatrix} x_A & y_A & z_A & 1\\ x_B & y_B & z_B & 1\\ x_C & y_C & z_C & 1\\ x_D & y_D & z_D & 1 \end{bmatrix} \right| = \frac16 \left|\det\begin{bmatrix} u_A & v_A & w_A & 1\\ u_B & v_B & w_B & 1\\ u_C & v_C & w_C & 1\\ u_D & v_D & w_D & 1 \end{bmatrix} \right| $$ We can view the determinant at the right as the determinant for 4 vectors in $\mathbb{R}^4$:

$$\begin{cases} \vec{u} &= (u_A, u_B, u_C, u_D),\\ \vec{v} &= (v_A, v_B, v_C, v_D),\\ \vec{w} &= (w_A, w_B, w_C, w_D),\\ \vec{\eta} &= (1, 1, 1, 1) \end{cases}$$ It is clear $(*1)$ implies $|\vec{u}|, |\vec{v}|, |\vec{w}| \le 1$ and $|\vec{\eta}| = 2$. This allow us to bound the determinant at the right and hence the volume of the tetrahedron as $$\text{Vol}(\Delta_{ABCD}) \le \frac16 |\vec{u}||\vec{v}||\vec{w}||\vec{\eta}| \le \frac16 ( 1 \times 1 \times 1 \times 2) = \frac13\tag{*2}$$

We know the volume $\frac13$ is achievable. The two obvious configurations are given below

  • $A = (0,1,1), B = (1,0,1), C = (1,1,0), D = (0,0,0)$.
  • $A = (1,0,0), B = (0,1,0), C = (0,0,1), D = (1,1,1)$.

This means the maximum volume we seek is $\frac13$.

Are there other configurations? The answer is NO. To achieve this maximum volume, the inequalities in $(*2)$ has to reduce to equalities. This leads to $$\begin{align} & |\vec{u}| = \vec{v} = \vec{w}| = 1\\ \implies & |u_P| = |v_P| = |w_P| = \frac12 \;\text{ for }\; P = A,B,C,D.\\ \implies & x_P, y_P, z_P = 0 \text{ or } 1 \;\text{ for }\; P = A,B,C,D.\\ \implies & A, B, C, D \;\text{ are vertices of the cube }\; [0,1]^3 \end{align} $$ There are only finitely many combinations to check and by brute force, there are no more configurations which maximize the volume.

achille hui
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