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Theorem. The rectangle with the greatest area that can be inscribed in a circle is a square.
Proof. We construct a circle
lengths and .
with arguments
with side
and ,
Finding where this function is maximised will give the side lengths that create the largest
area. Since
is a diameter of , the segment
Because all angles of a rectangle are
right angles,
is a right angle and triangle
is a right triangle. By the Pythagorean
theorem,
. Solving for we get
. The negative solution
can be ignored because the length of a segment must be positive. Substituting this into the
area function we get
When
, no rectangle can be formed. When
no inscribed rectangle can be
formed. Thus, the domain of
is
. This function is continuous and
differentiable on its domain. Differentiating with respect to gives us
Factoring out
we get
Finding where
will be equal to
The function
is continuous on
, therefore
is a critical point of
. The derivative of
. Solving for we get
whenever
provided
.
exists at
. Thus
will not exist whenever
The function
does not exist at
, therefore it is not a critical point. By the
intermediate value theorem, the derivative of a continuous function cannot change sign
except at a critical point of that function. As a consequence of this,
at
. Evaluating
at
gives us
at
gives us
Substituting
we get
.
The equation
is true for any given , therefore
is maximised when and
are equal. A rectangle with sides of equal length is a square, therefore the rectangle with the
greatest area that can be inscribed in a circle is a square.
Notes
1. Lemma. If a continuous and differentiable function
on some open interval
has exactly one critical point and that critical point is a relative maximum, that critical point
is a global maximum.
Proof. Let us define
to be the only critical point and a relative maximum of
on
. Suppose there exists some
. Since
is a relative maximum, there
must exist some point between and such that
. By the intermediate value
theorem, there must exist some between and such that
=
. All of these points
must exist on some interval
where is an arbitrarily small constant. Since
is a subset of , the function
is continuous and differentiable on . By Rolle's theorem,
there must exist some value on
such that
has a critical point on . Our
initial assumption was that
has exactly one critical point on , therefore a contradiction
is reached and an
cannot exist.