Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it Croatia

Let aa, bb and cc be positive real numbers such that a+b+c=1a + b + c = 1. Prove that
aa+b2+bb+c2+cc+a214(1a+1b+1c).(Toncˊi Kokan) \frac{a}{a+b^2} + \frac{b}{b+c^2} + \frac{c}{c+a^2} \le \frac{1}{4} \left( \frac{1}{a} + \frac{1}{b} + \frac{1}{c} \right). \quad (\text{Tonći Kokan})

Solution

By using the condition a+b+c=1a+b+c=1 and the inequality between arithmetic and geometric means, we have that
aa+b2=aa(a+b+c)+b2=aa2+b2+ab+aca2ab+ab+ac=13b+c. \frac{a}{a+b^2} = \frac{a}{a(a+b+c)+b^2} = \frac{a}{a^2+b^2+ab+ac} \le \frac{a}{2ab+ab+ac} = \frac{1}{3b+c}.
By applying the inequality between harmonic and arithmetic means, it follows that
43b+1c=41b+1b+1b+1cb+b+b+c4=3b+c4, \frac{4}{\frac{3}{b} + \frac{1}{c}} = \frac{4}{\frac{1}{b} + \frac{1}{b} + \frac{1}{b} + \frac{1}{c}} \le \frac{b+b+b+c}{4} = \frac{3b+c}{4},
i.e.
aa+b213b+c116(3b+1c). \frac{a}{a+b^2} \le \frac{1}{3b+c} \le \frac{1}{16} \left( \frac{3}{b} + \frac{1}{c} \right).
Analogously,
bb+c2116(3c+1a)andcc+a2116(3a+1b). \frac{b}{b+c^2} \le \frac{1}{16} \left( \frac{3}{c} + \frac{1}{a} \right) \quad \text{and} \quad \frac{c}{c+a^2} \le \frac{1}{16} \left( \frac{3}{a} + \frac{1}{b} \right).
Finally, by adding the inequalities above, we have that
aa+b2+bb+c2+cc+a2116(4a+4b+4c)=14(1a+1b+1c). \frac{a}{a+b^2} + \frac{b}{b+c^2} + \frac{c}{c+a^2} \le \frac{1}{16} \left( \frac{4}{a} + \frac{4}{b} + \frac{4}{c} \right) = \frac{1}{4} \left( \frac{1}{a} + \frac{1}{b} + \frac{1}{c} \right).

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.