Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /34 of 94

Algebra Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it Hong Kong

Suppose aa, bb and cc are nonzero real numbers satisfying abc=2abc = 2. Prove that among the three numbers 2a1b2a - \frac{1}{b}, 2b1c2b - \frac{1}{c} and 2c1a2c - \frac{1}{a}, at most two of them are greater than 22.

Solution

Suppose on the contrary that all three numbers 2a1b2a - \frac{1}{b}, 2b1c2b - \frac{1}{c} and 2c1a2c - \frac{1}{a} are greater than 22. Since abc=2abc = 2, at least one of aa, bb, cc is positive. WLOG assume a>0a > 0. Then 2c1a>22c - \frac{1}{a} > 2 implies c>1+12a>0c > 1 + \frac{1}{2a} > 0, and 2b1c>22b - \frac{1}{c} > 2 implies b>1+12c>0b > 1 + \frac{1}{2c} > 0.

Next, from 2b1c>22b - \frac{1}{c} > 2, we have
b>1+12c.(1) b > 1 + \frac{1}{2c}. \qquad (1)
From 2a1b>22a - \frac{1}{b} > 2 and abc=2abc = 2, we have 4bc1b>2\frac{4}{bc} - \frac{1}{b} > 2, and so
b<2c12.(2) b < \frac{2}{c} - \frac{1}{2}. \qquad (2)
Combining (1) and (2), we have 1+12c<b<2c121 + \frac{1}{2c} < b < \frac{2}{c} - \frac{1}{2}, which easily implies c<1c < 1. Similarly we can prove that a<1a < 1 and b<1b < 1. Together with the fact that they are all positive, we have abc<1abc < 1, contradicting the condition abc=2abc = 2. Therefore, at most two of 2a1b2a - \frac{1}{b}, 2b1c2b - \frac{1}{c} and 2c1a2c - \frac{1}{a} are greater than 22.

Want a route through all this instead of 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 reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.