Pedoe's inequality

In geometry, Pedoe's inequality, named after Daniel Pedoe, states that if a, b, and c are the lengths of the sides of a triangle with area ƒ, and A, B, and C are the lengths of the sides of a triangle with area F, then

$A^2(b^2+c^2-a^2)+B^2(a^2+c^2-b^2)+C^2(a^2+b^2-c^2)\geq 16Ff,\,$

with equality if and only if the two triangles are similar with pairs of corresponding sides (A, a), (B, b), and (C, c).

The expression on the left is not only symmetric under any of the six permutations of the set { (A, a), (B, b), (C, c) } of pairs, but also—perhaps not so obviously—remains the same if a is interchanged with A and b with B and c with C. In other words, it is a symmetric function of the pair of triangles.

Pedoe's inequality is a generalization of Weitzenböck's inequality, which is the case in which one of the triangles is equilateral.

See also

• List of triangle inequalities

References

• "A Two-Triangle Inequality", Daniel Pedoe, The American Mathematical Monthly, volume 70, number 9, page 1012, November, 1963.
• "An Inequality for Two Triangles", D. Pedoe, Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, volume 38, part 4, page 397, 1943.