Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Prove it Philippines

Problem:
Let rr and ss be positive real numbers that satisfy the equation
(r+srs)(r+s+rs)=rs (r+s-r s)(r+s+r s)=r s
Find the minimum values of r+srsr+s-r s and r+s+rsr+s+r s.

Solution

Solution:
The given equation can be rewritten into
(r+s)2=rs(rs+1) (r+s)^2 = r s(r s+1)
Since (r+s)24rs(r+s)^2 \geq 4 r s for any r,sRr, s \in \mathbb{R}, it follows that rs3r s \geq 3 for any r,s>0r, s > 0. Using this inequality, equation (1), and the assumption that rr and ss are positive, we have
r+srs=rs(rs+1)rs=11+1rs+111+13+1=3+23 \begin{aligned} r+s-r s = \sqrt{r s(r s+1)} - r s & = \frac{1}{\sqrt{1+\frac{1}{r s}}+1} \\ & \geq \frac{1}{\sqrt{1+\frac{1}{3}}+1} = -3 + 2 \sqrt{3} \end{aligned}
Similarly, we also have
r+s+rs3+23 r+s+r s \geq 3 + 2 \sqrt{3}
We show that these lower bounds can actually be attained. Observe that if r=s=3r = s = \sqrt{3}, then
r+srs=3+23andr+s+rs=3+23 r+s-r s = -3 + 2 \sqrt{3} \quad \text{and} \quad r+s+r s = 3 + 2 \sqrt{3}
Therefore, the required minimum values of r+srsr+s-r s and r+s+rsr+s+r s are 3+23-3 + 2 \sqrt{3} and 3+233 + 2 \sqrt{3}, respectively.

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