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Algebra Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Positive real numbers xx, yy, zz satisfy xyz+xy+yz+zx=x+y+z+1xyz + xy + yz + zx = x + y + z + 1. Prove that
13(1+x21+x+1+y21+y+1+z21+z)(x+y+z3)5/8. \frac{1}{3} \left( \sqrt{\frac{1+x^2}{1+x}} + \sqrt{\frac{1+y^2}{1+y}} + \sqrt{\frac{1+z^2}{1+z}} \right) \le \left( \frac{x+y+z}{3} \right)^{5/8}.

Solution

By the given condition, we have
1=xyz+xy+yz+xzx+y+z+1. 1 = \frac{xyz + xy + yz + xz}{x + y + z + 1}.
We may therefore compute
1+x2=xyz+xy+yz+xzx+y+z+1+x2=xyz+xy+yz+xz+x3+x2y+x2z+x2x+y+z+1=(xyz+yz)+(x2z+xz)+(x2y+xy)+(x3+x2)x+y+z+1=(1+x)(yz+xz+xy+x2)x+y+z+1=(1+x)(x+y)(x+z)x+y+z+1. \begin{aligned} 1 + x^2 &= \frac{xyz + xy + yz + xz}{x + y + z + 1} + x^2 \\ &= \frac{xyz + xy + yz + xz + x^3 + x^2y + x^2z + x^2}{x + y + z + 1} \\ &= \frac{(xyz + yz) + (x^2z + xz) + (x^2y + xy) + (x^3 + x^2)}{x + y + z + 1} \\ &= \frac{(1+x)(yz + xz + xy + x^2)}{x + y + z + 1} \\ &= \frac{(1+x)(x+y)(x+z)}{x + y + z + 1}. \end{aligned}
By the AM-GM inequality, this implies that
131+x21+x=13(x+y)(x+z)x+y+z+1x+y+x+z6x+y+z+1. \frac{1}{3}\sqrt{\frac{1+x^2}{1+x}} = \frac{1}{3}\sqrt{\frac{(x+y)(x+z)}{x+y+z+1}} \le \frac{x+y+x+z}{6\sqrt{x+y+z+1}}.
Adding the last inequality to its cyclic analogues yields
13(1+x21+x+1+y21+y+1+z21+z)2(x+y+z)3x+y+z+1. \frac{1}{3} \left( \sqrt{\frac{1+x^2}{1+x}} + \sqrt{\frac{1+y^2}{1+y}} + \sqrt{\frac{1+z^2}{1+z}} \right) \le \frac{2(x+y+z)}{3\sqrt{x+y+z+1}}.
It thus suffices to show that
2(x+y+z)3x+y+z+1(x+y+z3)5/8. \frac{2(x + y + z)}{3\sqrt{x + y + z + 1}} \le \left(\frac{x + y + z}{3}\right)^{5/8}.
Writing s=x+y+zs = x + y + z, this is equivalent to
(s3)3/414(s+1)=14(s3+s3+s3+1), \left(\frac{s}{3}\right)^{3/4} \le \frac{1}{4}(s+1) = \frac{1}{4}\left(\frac{s}{3} + \frac{s}{3} + \frac{s}{3} + 1\right),
which holds by the AM-GM inequality, completing the proof.

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