ISOPERIMETRIC INEQUALITY

Andrés Javier González Morera

Diciembre 05 de 2020

Let’s instinctively see meaning of the isoperimetric inequality, we have a rope

of fixed length L, ¿ what is the maximum area that could be surrounded with this
rope? Equivalently given a fixed area ¿what is the minimum length of the rope that
encloses that area?, but before looking at the formal aspects, the theorem and the
proof, let’s see some history.

History

This story refers to the legend of Dido. Virgil’s version has it that Dido, daughter
of the king of Tyre, fled her home after her brother had killed her husband. Then
she ended up on the north coast of Africa, where she bargained to buy as much land
as she could enclose with an oxhide. So she cut the hide into thin strips, and then
she faced, and presumably solved, the problem of enclosing the largest possible area
within a given perimeter— the isoperimetric problem. But earthly factors mar the
purity of the problem, for surely the clever Dido would have chosen an area by the
coast so as to exploit the shore as part of the perimeter. This is essential for the
mathematics as well as for the progress of the story. Virgil tells us that Aeneas,
on his quest to found Rome, is shipwrecked and blown ashore at Carthage. Dido
falls in love with him, but he does not return her love. He sails away and Dido
kills herself. Kline concludes “And so an ungrateful and unreceptive man with a
rigid mind caused the loss of a potential mathematician. This was the first blow to
mathematics which the Romans dealt”.

As for the mathematics of the isoperimetric problem, the Greeks pretty much
solved it, by their standards, when Zenodorus proved that a circle has greater area
than any polygon with the same perimeter. His work was lost. We know of it mainly
through Pappus and Theon of Alexandria.

Now let’s see one of the proofs of the isoperimetric inequality, this corresponds
to E. Schmidt in the year 1939, but first we will need Green’s theorem and the
relationship between the arithmetic mean and the geometric mean

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 Green’s Theorem Let C be a flat, simple and closed curve that encloses a
region D in a Cartesian plane suppose that P(x,y) y Q(x,y) continuous functions
that have continuous first-order derivatives on D, then
I I ZZ
∂Q ∂P
F dλ = (P dx + Qdy) = ( − )dA (1)
C C D ∂x ∂y
where
λ = (x(s), y(s)) (2)
is a parameterization of C and F=(P,Q) is a vector field.
if
∂Q ∂P
− =1 (3)
∂x ∂y
then I I ZZ
F dλ = (P dx + Qdy) = dA (4)
C C D
i.e the area of region D

The important aspects to take into account is that the geometric mean is less than
or equal to the arithmetic mean

Now let’s state the theorem of isoperimetric inequality

Theorem (isoperimetric inequality)

Let C be a simple closed curve in R2 whose length is l and let A be the area of
the region enclosed by C. then
l2 ≥ 4πA (5)
are equal if and only if C is a circumference

proof :
Taking into account the figure above
let λ : [o, l] → R2 with λ(s) = (x(s), y(s)) which parameterizes C by arc length.
let µ : [o, l] → R2 with µ(s) = (x(s), z(s)) which parameterizes the circumference S

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by arc length, also you have to kµ(s)k2 = (x(s))2 + (z(s))2 = r2 Let A be the area
enclosed by curve C, by green’s theorem
Z l
A= xy 0 ds (6)
0

similarly, the enclosed area the area enclosed by the circumference S is

Z l
2
πr = − zx0 ds (7)
0

then Z l Z l
0
A + πr = 2
xy ds − zx0 ds (8)
0 0
Z l
A + πr = 2
(xy 0 − zx0 )ds (9)
0
Z lp
2
A + πr ≤ (xy 0 − zx0 )2 ds (10)
0
as
(x2 + z 2 )(x02 + y 02 ) − (xy 0 − zx0 )2 = (xx0 + zy 0 )2 ≥ 0 (11)
we have to Z lp
2
A + πr ≤ (x2 + z 2 )(x02 + y 02 )ds (12)
0
so
A + πr2 ≤ rl (13)

A + πr2 rl
≤ (14)
2 2

taking into account that the term on the left is the arithmetic mean we get that
√ A + πr2 rl
Aπr2 ≤ ≤ (15)
2 2

so
√ rl
Aπr2 ≤ (16)
2

4Aπ ≤ l2 (17)
to get equality 4πA = l2 we need to (x2 + z 2 )(x02 + y 02 ) = (xy 0 − zx0 )2 which implies
that xx0 = −zy 0 if this happens we have A + πr2 = rl like A = πr2 then l = 2πr
here We could conclude that C is a circumference, however we have to prove that
x2 + y 2 = r2 so, we have

(xy − zx0 )2 = (x2 + z 2 )(x02 + y 02 ) (18)

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 where
(xy 0 − zx0 )2 = r2 (19)
developing the square and replacing we obtain x = ±ry 0 Suppose now that
another pair of parallel lines is taken, in the figure above, but perpendicular to
those used at the beginning of the test, that is, interchange the coordinate axes, we
carry out the same process that we have carried out, we obtain that the radius is r’
and instead of A = πr2 we have B = πr02 it can be proved that r=r’ and y = ±rx0
this way

x2 + y 2 = (ry 0 )2 + (rx0 )2 = r2 (y 02 + x02 ) (20)

x2 + y 2 = r 2 (21)
then C is a circumference