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Algebra Difficulty 4.7 AIME Prove it Ireland

Suppose that a,b,c>0a, b, c > 0 and a+b+c=3a + b + c = 3. Prove that a2+b2+c2+6abc9a^2 + b^2 + c^2 + 6abc \le 9.

Solution

We may homogenise in two steps the inequality we wish to show. First, we use (a+b+c)2=9(a+b+c)^2 = 9 to replace the RHS and obtain the equivalent inequality
a2+b2+c2+6abc(a+b+c)2=a2+b2+c2+2(ab+bc+ca)+3abc. a^2 + b^2 + c^2 + 6abc \le (a + b + c)^2 = a^2 + b^2 + c^2 + 2(ab + bc + ca) + 3abc.
This is equivalent to 3abcab+bc+ca3abc \le ab + bc + ca. We now multiply by 3=a+b+c3 = a+b+c to obtain the equivalent inequality
9abc(a+b+c)(ab+bc+ca)=a2b+ab2+b2c+bc2+c2a+a2c+3abc, 9abc \le (a + b + c)(ab + bc + ca) = a^2b + ab^2 + b^2c + bc^2 + c^2a + a^2c + 3abc,
i.e.,
6abca2b+ab2+b2c+bc2+c2a+a2c, or 6abc \le a^2b + ab^2 + b^2c + bc^2 + c^2a + a^2c, \text{ or}
6ab+ba+bc+cb+ca+ac, 6 \le \frac{a}{b} + \frac{b}{a} + \frac{b}{c} + \frac{c}{b} + \frac{c}{a} + \frac{a}{c},
which immediately follows from the AM-GM inequality.

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