Steiner's formula and a variational proof of the isoperimetric inequality

Abstract

We give a new proof of the isoperimetric inequality in the plane, based on Steiner's formula for the area of a convex neighborhood. This proof establishes the isoperimetric inequality directly, without requiring that we separately establish the existence of an optimal domain. In doing so, this proof bypasses the main difficulty in all of the proofs Steiner outlined for the plane isoperimetric inequality.