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Algebra Difficulty 4.9 AIME Prove it Slovenia

Prove that for all real xx and yy the inequality
x+y+x+1+y+12 |x + y| + |x + 1| + |y + 1| \geq 2
holds. For what xx does there exist yy such that x+y+x+1+y+1=2|x+y|+|x+1|+|y+1| = 2?

Solution

For all real aa we have aa|a| \ge a and aa|a| \ge -a. So,
x+y(x+y),x+1x+1,y+1y+1,(1) |x + y| \ge -(x + y), \quad |x + 1| \ge x + 1, \quad |y + 1| \ge y + 1, \quad (1)

x+y+x+1+y+1(x+y)+(x+1)+(y+1)=2.|x + y| + |x + 1| + |y + 1| \geq -(x + y) + (x + 1) + (y + 1) = 2.

Assume that the equality holds. Then the equality case occurs in all three inequalities (1) and so x+y0x + y \leq 0, x+10x + 1 \geq 0 and y+10y + 1 \geq 0. We get 1xy1-1 \leq x \leq -y \leq 1 or 1x1-1 \leq x \leq 1. If 1x1-1 \leq x \leq 1 and y=xy = -x, then

|x + y| + |x + 1| + |y + 1| = 2.

We can conclude that only for all real x[1,1]x \in [-1, 1] there exists yy, such that the equality holds.

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