Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /46 of 133

Algebra Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it Saudi Arabia

Let a1,a2,,a2na_{1}, a_{2}, \ldots, a_{2 n} be positive real numbers such that ai+an+i=1a_{i}+a_{n+i}=1, for all i=1,,ni=1, \cdots, n. Prove that there exist two different integers 1j,k2n1 \leq j, k \leq 2 n for which
aj2ak2<1n+n1 \sqrt{a_{j}^{2}-a_{k}^{2}}<\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}+\sqrt{n-1}}

Solution

Assume, without loss of generality, that
0<a1a2an12a2na2n1an+1<1, 0<a_{1} \leq a_{2} \leq \cdots \leq a_{n} \leq \frac{1}{2} \leq a_{2 n} \leq a_{2 n-1} \leq \cdots \leq a_{n+1}<1,
and let
K=min{ai2aj2, with i,j=1,,2n, and ij}. K=\min \left\{\left|a_{i}^{2}-a_{j}^{2}\right|, \text{ with } i, j=1, \ldots, 2 n, \text{ and } i \neq j\right\} .
We have
Ka2n2an2=(a2n+an)(a2nan)=12an, K \leq a_{2 n}^{2}-a_{n}^{2}=\left(a_{2 n}+a_{n}\right)\left(a_{2 n}-a_{n}\right)=1-2 a_{n},
which means that
1K2an. \frac{1-K}{2} \geq a_{n} .
We deduce that
(1K)24an2>an2a12=i=1n1(ai+12ai2)(n1)K. \frac{(1-K)^{2}}{4} \geq a_{n}^{2}>a_{n}^{2}-a_{1}^{2}=\sum_{i=1}^{n-1}\left(a_{i+1}^{2}-a_{i}^{2}\right) \geq(n-1) K .
This implies that
K22(2n1)K+1>0. K^{2}-2(2 n-1) K+1>0 .
Because K<1K<1, we deduce that
K<2n1(2n1)21=(nn1)2, K<2 n-1-\sqrt{(2 n-1)^{2}-1}=(\sqrt{n}-\sqrt{n-1})^{2},
and therefore
K<nn1=1n+n1. \sqrt{K}<\sqrt{n}-\sqrt{n-1}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}+\sqrt{n-1}} .

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 and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.