Olympiad Maths Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Prove it Romania

If aa, bb and cc are the length of the sides of a triangle, show that
32b+cb+c+2a+a+ca+c+2b+a+ba+b+2c<53. \frac{3}{2} \le \frac{b+c}{b+c+2a} + \frac{a+c}{a+c+2b} + \frac{a+b}{a+b+2c} < \frac{5}{3}.

Solution

The inequality
32b+cb+c+2a+a+ca+c+2b+a+ba+b+2c \frac{3}{2} \le \frac{b+c}{b+c+2a} + \frac{a+c}{a+c+2b} + \frac{a+b}{a+b+2c}
is Nesbitt's inequality for the triple (b+c,a+c,a+b)(b+c, a+c, a+b).

Triangle's inequality yields b+c>a3a+3b+3c>4a+2b+2c23(a+b+c)<12a+b+c4a3(a+b+c)<2a2a+b+c4a3(a+b+c)<1b+c2a+b+cb+c > a \Leftrightarrow 3a+3b+3c > 4a+2b+2c \Leftrightarrow \frac{2}{3(a+b+c)} < \frac{1}{2a+b+c} \Leftrightarrow \frac{4a}{3(a+b+c)} < \frac{2a}{2a+b+c} \Leftrightarrow \frac{4a}{3(a+b+c)} < 1 - \frac{b+c}{2a+b+c}.
In the same way 4b3(a+b+c)<1a+c2b+a+c\frac{4b}{3(a+b+c)} < 1 - \frac{a+c}{2b+a+c} and 4c3(a+b+c)<1a+b2c+a+b\frac{4c}{3(a+b+c)} < 1 - \frac{a+b}{2c+a+b}. Adding the last three inequalities gives
43<3(b+cb+c+2a+a+ca+c+2b+a+ba+b+2c), \frac{4}{3} < 3 - \left( \frac{b+c}{b+c+2a} + \frac{a+c}{a+c+2b} + \frac{a+b}{a+b+2c} \right),
which is equivalent to what we had to prove.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.