Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

Let xx, yy, and zz be real numbers.

a. Prove that
x+y>xy x + y > |x - y|
if and only if xx and yy are both positive.

b. Find an inequality involving the variables xx, yy, and zz, using only the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and absolute value, that is true if and only if xx, yy, and zz are all positive.

Solution

Solution:

Note that xy|x-y| is the greater of xyx-y and (xy)-(x-y). So the above assertion is equivalent to
x+y>xy and x+y>x+y2y>0 and 2x>0y>0 and x>0. \begin{aligned} & x+y > x-y \quad \text{ and } \quad x+y > -x+y \\ & 2y > 0 \quad \text{ and } \quad 2x > 0 \\ & y > 0 \quad \text{ and } \quad x > 0. \end{aligned}

Solution 1. The quantity
x+x x + |x|
is 2x2x, a positive number, if x>0x > 0 and is 00 otherwise. Therefore the inequality
(x+x)(y+y)(z+z)>0 (x + |x|)(y + |y|)(z + |z|) > 0
holds if and only if xx, yy, and zz are all positive.

Solution 2. By part (a), the condition that xx, yy, and zz are all positive is equivalent to
x+yxy>0 and z>0. x + y - |x - y| > 0 \quad \text{ and } \quad z > 0.
By part (a) again, this is equivalent to
x+yxy+z>x+yxyz. x + y - |x - y| + z > |x + y - |x - y| - z|.
This inequality involves no multiplication.

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