 Solution

The planar planar isoperimetric inequality iswith equality precisely for a disc. Let the positively oriented boundary be parametrized by arclength as $r(s)=(x(s),y(s))$, $0\le s\le L$. Translate its mean to zero. Then $|r^{\prime }|=1$, and Green's theorem gives $2A={\int }_0^L(x{y}^{\prime }-y{x}^{\prime })ds$.

The periodic Wirtinger inequality says that for a real absolutely continuous $L$-periodic function $h$ of mean zero and square-integrable derivative,with equality exactly for $h(s)=a\cos (2\pi s/L)+b\sin (2\pi s/L)$. Apply it to both coordinates and use Cauchy-Schwarz inequality:If equality holds, the Wirtinger equalities give $r=p\cos (2\pi s/L)+q\sin (2\pi s/L)$. The arclength condition forces $|p|=|q|=L/(2\pi )$ and $p\cdot q=0$, so the boundary is a circle. A circle attains equality, making the constant optimal.

The inequality and equality characterization persist for finitely many corners. A rectifiable piecewise smooth simple closed curve has a Lipschitz arclength parametrization, with $|r^{\prime }|=1$ almost everywhere. Green's theorem and the absolutely continuous version of Wirtinger's inequality used above still apply. More generally one may approximate a rectifiable Jordan curve by smooth curves while preserving the limiting length and area. If the allowed isolated singularities give infinite length, the inequality is trivially satisfied in the extended sense.