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Algebra Difficulty 4.8 AIME Prove it Romania

Let a>0a > 0 be a real number. Prove the inequality
asinx(a+1)cosxa,x[0,π2]. a^{\sin x} \cdot (a+1)^{\cos x} \ge a, \quad \forall x \in [0, \frac{\pi}{2}].

Solution

If a>1a > 1, taking logs of both sides we obtain the equivalent inequality
sinx+cosxloga(a+1)1. \sin x + \cos x \cdot \log_a (a+1) \ge 1.
For x[0,π/2]x \in [0, \pi/2], we have sinxsin2x\sin x \ge \sin^2 x and cosxcos2x\cos x \ge \cos^2 x. Because loga(a+1)>1\log_a (a+1) > 1, we obtain
sinx+cosxloga(a+1)sin2x+cos2x=1. \sin x + \cos x \cdot \log_a (a+1) \ge \sin^2 x + \cos^2 x = 1.
The inequality clearly holds true for a=1a = 1.

Finally, if a(0,1)a \in (0, 1), the inequality is equivalent to
sinx+cosxloga(a+1)1,x[0,π/2], \sin x + \cos x \cdot \log_a (a+1) \le 1, \quad \forall x \in [0, \pi/2],
which is obvious, since sinx1\sin x \le 1, cosx0\cos x \ge 0 and loga(a+1)<0\log_a (a+1) < 0.

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