Why the diagonal of a cube isn't its symmetry line?
We should find a point that its reflection is out of cube but I can't find that.Please don't use softwares or so.Because it was a math olympiads question.
Why the diagonal of a cube isn't its symmetry line?
We should find a point that its reflection is out of cube but I can't find that.Please don't use softwares or so.Because it was a math olympiads question.
Consider the standard unit cube in $\mathbb{R}^3$.
Let $d$ be the diagonal line through the points $(0,0,0)$, $(1,1,1)$.
Let $A = (1,1,0)$.
A generic point on $d$ has the form $(t,t,t)$.
The square of the distance from $A$ to $(t,t,t)$ is $3t^2-4t+2$, which is a quadratic function which achieves its minimum value at $t=2/3$.
It follows that the point on $d$ which is closest to $A$ is the point $B=(2/3,2/3,2/3)$.
Let $C$ be the reflection of $A$ about $d$.
Then $C$ must be the reflection of $A$ through the point $B$.
It follows that $B$ is the midpoint of the line segment $AC$.
Applying the midpoint formula, we get $C = (1/3,1/3,4/3)$.
Since the $z$-coordinate of $C$ is greater than $1$, $C$ is outside the cube.
It follows that the diagonal line $d$ is not a line of symmetry for the cube.