Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it Canada

Problem:
Let n2n \geq 2 be some fixed positive integer and suppose that a1,a2,,ana_{1}, a_{2}, \ldots, a_{n} are positive real numbers satisfying a1+a2++an=2n1a_{1}+a_{2}+\cdots+a_{n}=2^{n}-1.
Find the minimum possible value of
a11+a21+a1+a31+a1+a2++an1+a1+a2++an1. \frac{a_{1}}{1}+\frac{a_{2}}{1+a_{1}}+\frac{a_{3}}{1+a_{1}+a_{2}}+\cdots+\frac{a_{n}}{1+a_{1}+a_{2}+\cdots+a_{n-1}}.

Solution

Solution:
We claim the the minimum possible value of this expression is nn. Observe that by AM-GM, we have that
a11+a21+a1++an1+a1+a2++an1=1+a11+1+a1+a21+a1++1+a1+a2++an1+a1+a2++an1nn1+a111+a1+a21+a11+a1+a2++an1+a1+a2++an1nn=n1+a1+a2++annn=2nn=n. \begin{aligned} \frac{a_{1}}{1} &+ \frac{a_{2}}{1+a_{1}}+\cdots+\frac{a_{n}}{1+a_{1}+a_{2}+\cdots+a_{n-1}} \\ &=\frac{1+a_{1}}{1}+\frac{1+a_{1}+a_{2}}{1+a_{1}}+\cdots+\frac{1+a_{1}+a_{2}+\cdots+a_{n}}{1+a_{1}+a_{2}+\cdots+a_{n-1}}-n \\ &\geq n \cdot \sqrt[n]{\frac{1+a_{1}}{1} \cdot \frac{1+a_{1}+a_{2}}{1+a_{1}} \cdots \frac{1+a_{1}+a_{2}+\cdots+a_{n}}{1+a_{1}+a_{2}+\cdots+a_{n-1}}}-n \\ &=n \cdot \sqrt[n]{1+a_{1}+a_{2}+\cdots+a_{n}}-n \\ &=2n-n=n. \end{aligned}
Furthermore, equality is achieved when ak=2k1a_{k}=2^{k-1} for each 1kn1 \leq k \leq n.

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