Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 70 1 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Compute twice the four opposite face areas and their weighted vertex average:These positive weights make an interior convex combination. To verify the incenter of a tetrahedron, put . The altitude from to its opposite face is . Signed distance to that face is affine and vanishes at the other three vertices, so has distance . The same argument works for every face. HenceThe sphere of radius centered at is tangent to all four faces. Equality of the four distances conversely forces these face-area weights, proving uniqueness.