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Algebra Difficulty 5.0 AIME Prove it India

Problem:
Let x,yx, y be positive reals such that x+y=2x + y = 2. Prove that
x3y3(x3+y3)2 x^{3} y^{3} (x^{3} + y^{3}) \leq 2

Solution

Solution:
We have from the AM-GM inequality, that
xy(x+y2)2=1 x y \leq \left(\frac{x + y}{2}\right)^{2} = 1
Thus we obtain 0<xy10 < x y \leq 1. We write
x3y3(x3+y3)=(xy)3(x+y)(x2xy+y2)=2(xy)3((x+y)23xy)=2(xy)3(43xy) \begin{aligned} x^{3} y^{3} (x^{3} + y^{3}) &= (x y)^{3} (x + y) (x^{2} - x y + y^{2}) \\ &= 2 (x y)^{3} ((x + y)^{2} - 3 x y) \\ &= 2 (x y)^{3} (4 - 3 x y) \end{aligned}
Thus we need to prove that
(xy)3(43xy)1 (x y)^{3} (4 - 3 x y) \leq 1
Putting z=xyz = x y, this inequality reduces to
z3(43z)1 z^{3} (4 - 3 z) \leq 1
for 0<z10 < z \leq 1. We can prove this in different ways. We can put the inequality in the form
3z44z3+10 3 z^{4} - 4 z^{3} + 1 \geq 0
Here the expression in the LHS factors to (z1)2(3z2+2z+1)(z - 1)^{2} (3 z^{2} + 2 z + 1) and (3z2+2z+1)(3 z^{2} + 2 z + 1) is positive since its discriminant D=8<0D = -8 < 0. Or applying the AM-GM inequality to the positive reals 43z,z,z,z4 - 3 z, z, z, z, we obtain
z3(43z)(43z+3z4)41 z^{3} (4 - 3 z) \leq \left(\frac{4 - 3 z + 3 z}{4}\right)^{4} \leq 1

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