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Algebra Difficulty 5.0 AIME Prove it Romania

Suppose aa and bb are complex numbers. Prove that az+bzˉ1|az + b\bar{z}| \le 1 for all zCz \in \mathbb{C} with z=1|z| = 1 if and only if a+b1|a| + |b| \le 1.
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Solution

Let a+b1|a| + |b| \le 1 and let zCz \in \mathbb{C} with z=1|z| = 1. Then az+bzˉaz+bzˉ=a+b1|az + b\bar{z}| \le |az| + |b\bar{z}| = |a| + |b| \le 1, as claimed.

Conversely, if a=0a = 0 or b=0b = 0 there is nothing to show. For a,b0a, b \neq 0, write ba=r(cosα+isinα)\frac{b}{a} = r(\cos\alpha + i\sin\alpha). Put z=cosα2+isinα2z = \cos\frac{\alpha}{2} + i\sin\frac{\alpha}{2} to get 1az+bzˉ=azˉz2+ba=a(1+r)(cosα+isinα)=a(1+r)=a(1+ba)=a+b1 \ge |az + b\bar{z}| = |a||\bar{z}|\left|z^2 + \frac{b}{a}\right| = |a|(1+r)(\cos\alpha + i\sin\alpha) = |a|(1+r) = |a|(1 + \left|\frac{b}{a}\right|) = |a| + |b|, which ends the proof.

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