Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /21 of 62

Algebra Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it Ukraine

For positive numbers a,b,ca, b, c prove the inequality :
a2+bc+b2+ca+c2+abab+bc+bc+ca+ca+ab. \sqrt{a^2 + bc} + \sqrt{b^2 + ca} + \sqrt{c^2 + ab} \ge \sqrt{ab + bc} + \sqrt{bc + ca} + \sqrt{ca + ab}.

Solution

It should be noted, that the inequality is symmetrical, that is, the interchange in places of any two variables does not change its appearance. So, without any loss of generality we can assume that abca \ge b \ge c. If we move all summands to one side and group them accordingly, the inequality becomes like this:
(a2+bcca+ab)+(b2+caab+bc)+(c2+abbc+ca)0. (\sqrt{a^2 + bc} - \sqrt{ca + ab}) + (\sqrt{b^2 + ca} - \sqrt{ab + bc}) + (\sqrt{c^2 + ab} - \sqrt{bc + ca}) \ge 0.
After multiplying every summand on the conjugate, we obtain that the following inequality should be proven:
(ab)(ac)a2+bc+ca+ab+(bc)(ba)b2+ca+ab+bc+(ca)(cb)c2+ab+bc+ca0. \frac{(a-b)(a-c)}{\sqrt{a^2+bc}+\sqrt{ca+ab}} + \frac{(b-c)(b-a)}{\sqrt{b^2+ca}+\sqrt{ab+bc}} + \frac{(c-a)(c-b)}{\sqrt{c^2+ab}+\sqrt{bc+ca}} \ge 0.
Since (ab)(ac)a2+bc+ca+ab0\frac{(a-b)(a-c)}{\sqrt{a^2+bc}+\sqrt{ca+ab}} \ge 0 it will be enough to prove that:
(ac)(bc)c2+ab+bc+ca(bc)(ab)b2+ca+ab+bc. \frac{(a-c)(b-c)}{\sqrt{c^2 + ab} + \sqrt{bc + ca}} \ge \frac{(b-c)(a-b)}{\sqrt{b^2 + ca} + \sqrt{ab + bc}}.
If bc=0b-c=0, hence there are zeros in both parts of the inequality. Otherwise, we can divide both parts by bc>0b-c>0. Further, since acbc0a-c \ge b-c \ge 0 it should be enough to prove the inequality:
1c2+ab+bc+ca1b2+ca+ab+bcb2+ca+ab+bcc2+ab+bc+ca. \frac{1}{\sqrt{c^2 + ab} + \sqrt{bc + ca}} \ge \frac{1}{\sqrt{b^2 + ca} + \sqrt{ab + bc}} \Leftrightarrow \\ \sqrt{b^2 + ca} + \sqrt{ab + bc} \ge \sqrt{c^2 + ab} + \sqrt{bc + ca}.
The last inequality is true, since

b2+cabc+cab^2 + ca \geq bc + ca and ab+bcc2+abab + bc \geq c^2 + ab.

The inequality has been proven.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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