Let ABCD be a quadrilateral, and let E,F,G,H be the respective midpoints of AB,BC,CD,DA. If EG=12 and FH=15, what is the maximum possible area of ABCD?
A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.
Solution
The area of EFGH is EG⋅FHsinθ/2, where θ is the angle between EG and FH. This is at most 90. However, we claim the area of ABCD is twice that of EFGH. To see this, notice that EF=AC/2=GH,FG=BD/2=HE, so EFGH is a parallelogram. The half of this parallelogram lying inside triangle DAB has area (BD/2)(h/2), where h is the height from A to BD, and triangle DAB itself has area BD⋅h/2=2⋅(BD/2)(h/2). A similar computation holds in triangle BCD, proving the claim. Thus, the area of ABCD is at most 180. And this maximum is attainable - just take a rectangle with AB=CD=15,BC=DA=12.
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