Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 4.9 AIME Prove it JBMO

Problem:
Let aa, bb, cc be positive real numbers. Prove that
ab+bc+ca3>2 \frac{a}{b}+\sqrt{\frac{b}{c}}+\sqrt[3]{\frac{c}{a}}>2

Solution

Solution:
Starting from the double expression on the left-hand side of given inequality, and applying twice the Arithmetic-Geometric mean inequality, we find that
2ab+2bc+2ca3=ab+(ab+bc+bc)+2ca3ab+3ab3bcbc+2ca3=ab+3ac3+2ca3=ab+ac3+2ac3+ca3)ab+ac3+22ac3ca3=ab+ac3+4>4 \begin{aligned} 2 \frac{a}{b}+2 \sqrt{\frac{b}{c}}+2 \sqrt[3]{\frac{c}{a}} & =\frac{a}{b}+\left(\frac{a}{b}+\sqrt{\frac{b}{c}}+\sqrt{\frac{b}{c}}\right)+2 \sqrt[3]{\frac{c}{a}} \\ & \geq \frac{a}{b}+3 \sqrt[3]{\frac{a}{b}} \sqrt{\frac{b}{c}} \sqrt{\frac{b}{c}}+2 \sqrt[3]{\frac{c}{a}} \\ & =\frac{a}{b}+3 \sqrt[3]{\frac{a}{c}}+2 \sqrt[3]{\frac{c}{a}} \\ & \left.=\frac{a}{b}+\sqrt[3]{\frac{a}{c}}+2 \sqrt[3]{\frac{a}{c}}+\sqrt[3]{\frac{c}{a}}\right) \\ & \geq \frac{a}{b}+\sqrt[3]{\frac{a}{c}}+2 \cdot 2 \sqrt{\sqrt[3]{\frac{a}{c}} \sqrt[3]{\frac{c}{a}}} \\ & =\frac{a}{b}+\sqrt[3]{\frac{a}{c}}+4 \\ & >4 \end{aligned}
which yields the given inequality.

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