Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 ia Paper 1 5C Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
For a point on the plane, the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality gives , because is a unit vector. Equality is achieved at . Thus the distance from the origin is .
Let and let be the perpendicular projection of the sphere's center onto the plane. Every point of the plane has form with . The Pythagorean theorem givesIf , the sphere equation therefore forces . There is exactly one contact point, ; it lies on both surfaces.
Write . The nonzero scalar triple product proves that are linearly independent, so they form a positively oriented basis of and define a nondegenerate tetrahedron.
For the three faces through the origin, choose the inward unit vectorsTheir signs are correct because each has positive inner product with the opposite vertex vector. Write the center as . It lies on the interior side of every face. Tangency of the interior sphere therefore means signed distance , not , from each of those three planes. Taking inner products givesSolving proves the center formulaThis is the sphere center from three tetrahedron face distances; the interior hypothesis selects these signs rather than an exterior center.