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Algebra Difficulty 4.7 AIME Prove it United States

Problem:
Show that for positive real numbers aa, bb, and cc,
1a+b+1b+c+1c+a(a+b+c)2ab(a+b)+bc(b+c)+ca(c+a) \frac{1}{a+b}+\frac{1}{b+c}+\frac{1}{c+a} \geq \frac{(a+b+c)^{2}}{a b(a+b)+b c(b+c)+c a(c+a)}

Solution

Solution:
Expanding and rearranging the denominator gives
a2b+ab2+b2c+bc2+c2a+ac=c2(a+b)+a2(b+c)+b2(c+a). a^{2} b + a b^{2} + b^{2} c + b c^{2} + c^{2} a + a c = c^{2}(a+b) + a^{2}(b+c) + b^{2}(c+a).
By Cauchy-Schwarz,
(c2(a+b)+a2(b+c)+b2(c+a))(1a+b+1b+c+1c+a)(a+b+c)2, \left(c^{2}(a+b) + a^{2}(b+c) + b^{2}(c+a)\right)\left(\frac{1}{a+b} + \frac{1}{b+c} + \frac{1}{c+a}\right) \geq (a+b+c)^{2},
and dividing by c2(a+b)+a2(b+c)+b2(c+a)c^{2}(a+b) + a^{2}(b+c) + b^{2}(c+a) gives the desired inequality.

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