Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2003 / ia / Paper 3 / 5E / a / Solution

Move the origin to the centroid and write the four vertex vectors as $r_1,r_2,r_3,r_4$. Their sum is zero. The midpoints of the first opposite-edge pair have vectors $(r_1+r_2)/2$ and $(r_3+r_4)/2=-(r_1+r_2)/2$, so their distances from the centroid are equal. The same argument applies to the other two opposite-edge pairs.

Choose the three midpoint distances as $u=|r_1+r_2|/2$, $v=|r_1+r_3|/2$, $w=|r_1+r_4|/2$. Expanding the dot products,Identifying these four norms with the vertex distances proves the tetrahedron centroid-to-midpoint sum of squares:The proof uses no orthogonality or regularity assumption on the tetrahedron.