Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it Philippines

Problem:
Suppose 12x2\frac{1}{2} \leq x \leq 2 and 43y32\frac{4}{3} \leq y \leq \frac{3}{2}. Determine the minimum value of
x3y3x6+3x4y2+3x3y3+3x2y4+y6 \frac{x^{3} y^{3}}{x^{6}+3 x^{4} y^{2}+3 x^{3} y^{3}+3 x^{2} y^{4}+y^{6}}

Solution

Solution:
Note that
x3y3x6+3x4y2+3x3y3+3x2y4+y6=x3y3(x2+y2)3+3x3y3=1(x2+y2)3x3y3+3=1(x2+y2xy)3+3=1(xy+yx)3+3 \begin{aligned} \frac{x^{3} y^{3}}{x^{6}+3 x^{4} y^{2}+3 x^{3} y^{3}+3 x^{2} y^{4}+y^{6}} & =\frac{x^{3} y^{3}}{\left(x^{2}+y^{2}\right)^{3}+3 x^{3} y^{3}} \\ & =\frac{1}{\frac{\left(x^{2}+y^{2}\right)^{3}}{x^{3} y^{3}}+3} \\ & =\frac{1}{\left(\frac{x^{2}+y^{2}}{x y}\right)^{3}+3} \\ & =\frac{1}{\left(\frac{x}{y}+\frac{y}{x}\right)^{3}+3} \end{aligned}
Let u=xyu=\frac{x}{y}. We have xy+yx=u+1u\frac{x}{y}+\frac{y}{x}=u+\frac{1}{u}. To get the minimum value of the entire expression, we need to make u+1uu+\frac{1}{u} as large as possible. We can do this by setting x=12x=\frac{1}{2} and y=32y=\frac{3}{2}. The function f(u)=u+1uf(u)=u+\frac{1}{u} is increasing on (1,+)(1,+\infty). Therefore xy+yx=13+3=103\frac{x}{y}+\frac{y}{x}=\frac{1}{3}+3=\frac{10}{3} and the minimum is
1(xy+yx)3+3=1(103)3+3=271081 \frac{1}{\left(\frac{x}{y}+\frac{y}{x}\right)^{3}+3}=\frac{1}{\left(\frac{10}{3}\right)^{3}+3}=\frac{27}{1081}

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