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Algebra Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it Croatia

Let a1,a2,,ana_1, a_2, \dots, a_n be positive real numbers such that a1+a2++an=1a_1 + a_2 + \dots + a_n = 1.
Prove that the following inequality holds
a13a12+a2a3+a23a22+a3a4++an13an12+ana1+an3an2+a1a212. \frac{a_1^3}{a_1^2 + a_2 a_3} + \frac{a_2^3}{a_2^2 + a_3 a_4} + \dots + \frac{a_{n-1}^3}{a_{n-1}^2 + a_n a_1} + \frac{a_n^3}{a_n^2 + a_1 a_2} \ge \frac{1}{2}.

Solution

We have
a13a12+a2a3=a13+a1a2a3a1a2a3a12+a2a3=a1a1a2a31a12+a2a3a1a1a2a3A-G12a1a2a3=a112a2a3A-Ga1a2+a34 \begin{aligned} \frac{a_1^3}{a_1^2 + a_2 a_3} &= \frac{a_1^3 + a_1 a_2 a_3 - a_1 a_2 a_3}{a_1^2 + a_2 a_3} = a_1 - a_1 a_2 a_3 \cdot \frac{1}{a_1^2 + a_2 a_3} \\ &\geqq \overset{\text{A-G}}{a_1 - a_1 a_2 a_3} \cdot \frac{1}{2a_1\sqrt{a_2 a_3}} = a_1 - \frac{1}{2}\sqrt{a_2 a_3} \overset{\text{A-G}}{\geqq} a_1 - \frac{a_2 + a_3}{4} \end{aligned}
Summing those nn inequalities gives us:
a13a12+a2a3+a23a22+a3a4++an13an12+ana1+an3an2+a1a2(a1a2+a34)+(a2a3+a44)++(an1an+a14)+(ana1+a24)=a1+a2++an2=12. \begin{aligned} & \frac{a_1^3}{a_1^2 + a_2 a_3} + \frac{a_2^3}{a_2^2 + a_3 a_4} + \dots + \frac{a_{n-1}^3}{a_{n-1}^2 + a_n a_1} + \frac{a_n^3}{a_n^2 + a_1 a_2} \\ & \geqslant \left(a_1 - \frac{a_2+a_3}{4}\right) + \left(a_2 - \frac{a_3+a_4}{4}\right) + \dots + \left(a_{n-1} - \frac{a_n+a_1}{4}\right) + \left(a_n - \frac{a_1+a_2}{4}\right) \\ & = \frac{a_1 + a_2 + \dots + a_n}{2} = \frac{1}{2}. \end{aligned}

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