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Algebra Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Estonia

Prove that every positive real number satisfies
(x+1)(x+2)(x+5)36x. (x+1)(x+2)(x+5) \ge 36x.

Solutions — 3

Solution 1

The given inequality is equivalent to x3+8x219x+100x^3 + 8x^2 - 19x + 10 \ge 0. Note that x3+8x219x+10=(x1)2(x+10)x^3 + 8x^2 - 19x + 10 = (x-1)^2(x+10). As (x1)20(x-1)^2 \ge 0 and x+10>0x+10 > 0 for positive xx, this inequality holds indeed.

Solution 2

Let f(x)=x3+8x219x+10f(x) = x^3 + 8x^2 - 19x + 10. The given inequality is equivalent to f(x)0f(x) \ge 0. Note that f(x)=3x2+16x19f'(x) = 3x^2 + 16x - 19. As D=16243(19)>0D = 16^2 - 4 \cdot 3 \cdot (-19) > 0, the function ff' has two real roots. Let the smaller and the larger root be x1x_1 and x2x_2, respectively; then x2=1x_2 = 1 and x1<0x_1 < 0. As the coefficient of the quadratic term of f(x)f'(x) is positive, ff' is increasing at 1 whence the values of ff' are negative in the interval (x1;1)(x_1; 1) and positive in the interval (1;)(1; \infty). Hence ff is decreasing in the interval (x1;1)(x_1; 1) and increasing in the interval (1;)(1; \infty) (Fig. 39). Thus f(x)f(1)=0f(x) \ge f(1) = 0 holds for all xx in the interval (x1;)(x_1; \infty) that includes every positive xx.

Figure 1
Fig. 39

Solution 3

For every positive integer kk, the AM-GM inequality implies x+1kk+1x1kk+1\frac{x+1 \cdot k}{k+1} \ge \sqrt[k+1]{x \cdot 1^k}. Using this inequality for k=1,k=2k=1, k=2, and k=5k=5, we obtain the inequalities x+12xx+1 \ge 2\sqrt{x}, x+23x3x+2 \ge 3\sqrt[3]{x}, x+56x6x+5 \ge 6\sqrt[6]{x}, respectively. The desired result is now obtained by multiplying the corresponding sides.

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