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Algebra Difficulty 4.9 AIME Prove it Romania

Find the real numbers xx, yy, z>0z > 0 for which
xyzmin{4(x1y),4(y1z),4(z1x)}. xyz \le \min \left\{ 4 \left(x - \frac{1}{y}\right), 4 \left(y - \frac{1}{z}\right), 4 \left(z - \frac{1}{x}\right) \right\}.

Solution

From the given condition, we have xyz4(x1y)xyz \le 4 \left(x - \frac{1}{y}\right), which is equivalent to 4xxyz+4y4x \ge xyz + \frac{4}{y}. By AM-GM, we get 4xxyz+4y2xyz4y=4xz4x \ge xyz + \frac{4}{y} \ge 2\sqrt{xyz \cdot \frac{4}{y}} = 4\sqrt{xz}, so xzx \ge z.

Analogously, from xyz4(y1z)xyz \le 4 \left(y - \frac{1}{z}\right) and xyz4(z1x)xyz \le 4 \left(z - \frac{1}{x}\right), we get yxy \ge x and zyz \ge y, so necessarily x=y=zx = y = z.

Now the requirement holds if and only if x34(x1x)x^3 \le 4 \left(x - \frac{1}{x}\right), i.e. (x22)20(x^2 - 2)^2 \le 0, which leads to x=2x = \sqrt{2}, so x=y=z=2x = y = z = \sqrt{2} is the only solution.

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