Let the real numbers satisfy the relations and . Prove that
Solutions — 3
Solution 1
Observe that
Now, introducing , we need to prove the inequalities
under the constraint
(we will not use the value of though it can be found).
Now the rightmost inequality in (1) follows from the power mean inequality:
For the other one, expanding the brackets we note that
where is a nonnegative number, so
and we are done.
Solution 2
First, we claim that . Actually, we have
hence the power mean inequality
rewrites as
which implies the desired inequalities for ; since the conditions are symmetric, we also have the same estimate for the other variables.
Now, to prove the rightmost inequality, we use the obvious inequality for each real ; this inequality rewrites as . It follows that
as desired.
Now we prove the leftmost inequality in an analogous way. For each , we have which is equivalent to . This implies that , as desired.
Solution 3
First, expanding and applying the AM-GM inequality, we have
which establishes the rightmost inequality.
To prove the leftmost inequality, we first show that as in the previous solution. Moreover, we can assume that . Then we have .
Next, we show that . Actually, this inequality rewrites as , which follows from the previous estimate. The inequality can be proved analogously.
Further, the inequalities together with allow us to apply the Chebyshev inequality obtaining
This implies that
Finally, we have (which implies ); so, the expression in the right-hand part of (2) is nonnegative, and the desired inequality is proved.