Olympiad Maths Prep

Library / /6 of 11

Geometry Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it Czech Republic

Find all pairs of real numbers k,lk, l such that the inequality
ka2+lb2>c2 ka^2 + lb^2 > c^2
holds for side lengths a,b,ca, b, c of any triangle.

Solution

Assume that for some k,lk, l, the given inequality holds for all side lengths a,b,ca, b, c of any triangle. Plugging in a=c=1a = c = 1 and arbitrary b<2b < 2, we get k+lb2>1k + lb^2 > 1. If k<1k < 1 then we easily find sufficiently small b>0b > 0 that makes the inequality false. Hence k1k \ge 1 and likewise l1l \ge 1.

Let ABCABC be a triangle in the coordinate plane. Without loss of generality, let A=[1,0]A = [-1, 0], B=[1,0]B = [1, 0], and denote C=[x,y]C = [x, y] (y0y \ne 0). Using Pythagorean Theorem we express the side lengths in terms of x,yx, y and plug it in the given inequality to obtain
k((x1)2+y2)+l((x+1)2+y2)>4 k((x-1)^2 + y^2) + l((x+1)^2 + y^2) > 4
which rewrites as
(k+l)x2+2(lk)x+k+l4>(k+l)y2.(1) (k+l)x^2 + 2(l-k)x + k + l - 4 > -(k+l)y^2. \quad (1)
This inequality has to hold for any xx and any y0y \ne 0. However, varying yy, the right-hand side attains all negative values (recall k+l>0k+l > 0). Therefore for any xx we have
(k+l)x2+2(lk)x+(k+l4)0,(2) (k+l)x^2 + 2(l-k)x + (k+l-4) \ge 0, \quad (2)
which happens if and only if the discriminant D=4(lk)24(k+l4)(k+l)D = 4(l-k)^2 - 4(k+l-4)(k+l) is not positive. The inequality D0D \le 0 rewrites to klk+lkl \ge k+l.

We found out that if numbers k,lk, l satisfy the given inequality for any triplet of side lengths of a triangle then k1,l1k \ge 1, l \ge 1, and
klk+l.(3) kl \ge k + l. \tag{3}
On the other hand, the conjunction of these three conditions is also sufficient: The third condition implies that (2) is satisfied for any real xx and since the right-hand side of (1) is negative for y0y \ne 0, inequality (1) is satisfied for any xx and any y0y \ne 0. Finally, inequality (1) is equivalent to the given inequality.

Looking for a route rather than an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.