Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /15 of 121

Algebra Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it India

Problem:
Let a,b,ca, b, c be three real numbers such that 1abc01 \geq a \geq b \geq c \geq 0. Prove that if λ\lambda is a root of the cubic equation x3+ax2+bx+c=0x^{3}+a x^{2}+b x+c=0 (real or complex), then λ1|\lambda| \leq 1.

Solution

Solution:
Since λ\lambda is a root of the equation x3+ax2+bx+c=0x^{3}+a x^{2}+b x+c=0, we have
λ3=aλ2bλc \lambda^{3} = -a \lambda^{2} - b \lambda - c
This implies that
λ4=aλ3bλ2cλ=(1a)λ3+(ab)λ2+(bc)λ+c \begin{aligned} \lambda^{4} & = -a \lambda^{3} - b \lambda^{2} - c \lambda \\ & = (1-a) \lambda^{3} + (a-b) \lambda^{2} + (b-c) \lambda + c \end{aligned}
where we have used again
λ3aλ2bλc=0 -\lambda^{3} - a \lambda^{2} - b \lambda - c = 0
Suppose λ1|\lambda| \geq 1. Then we obtain
λ4(1a)λ3+(ab)λ2+(bc)λ+c(1a)λ3+(ab)λ3+(bc)λ3+cλ3λ3 \begin{aligned} |\lambda|^{4} & \leq (1-a)|\lambda|^{3} + (a-b)|\lambda|^{2} + (b-c)|\lambda| + c \\ & \leq (1-a)|\lambda|^{3} + (a-b)|\lambda|^{3} + (b-c)|\lambda|^{3} + c|\lambda|^{3} \\ & \leq |\lambda|^{3} \end{aligned}
This shows that λ1|\lambda| \leq 1. Hence the only possibility in this case is λ=1|\lambda|=1. We conclude that λ1|\lambda| \leq 1 is always true.

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.