Let , , and be positive integers such that
If , prove that there does not exist a positive real number such that
Solution
Claim. For any positive integer and real number the following inequality holds:
where the equality is satisfied if and only if .
Proof. If , we easily see that the equality holds for all real numbers . Let us assume that , and let us apply the inequality between arithmetic and geometric means for and copies of :
or equivalently,
Notice that the equality is attained only if the equation is satisfied, which is impossible due to the assumption .
Let us now prove the original problem, using the above claim. We have
where equality holds in case . However, so we conclude that this is not the case. Therefore, we conclude that the original equation has no solutions in positive real numbers.
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