Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it Serbia

Problem:

Prove the inequality
xyxy+2y+1+yzyz+2z+1+zxzx+2x+10 \frac{x-y}{x y+2 y+1}+\frac{y-z}{y z+2 z+1}+\frac{z-x}{z x+2 x+1} \geqslant 0
where x,yx, y and zz are nonnegative real numbers.

Solution

Solution:

Let us denote a=xyxy+2y+1a=\frac{x-y}{x y+2 y+1}, b=yzyz+2z+1b=\frac{y-z}{y z+2 z+1} and c=zxzx+2x+1c=\frac{z-x}{z x+2 x+1}. Then 1+1a=xy+x+y+1xy1+\frac{1}{a}=\frac{x y+x+y+1}{x-y} and from this aa+1=xyxy+x+y+1=1y+11x+1\frac{a}{a+1}=\frac{x-y}{x y+x+y+1}=\frac{1}{y+1}-\frac{1}{x+1}; similarly bb+1=1z+11y+1\frac{b}{b+1}=\frac{1}{z+1}-\frac{1}{y+1} and cc+1=1x+11z+1\frac{c}{c+1}=\frac{1}{x+1}-\frac{1}{z+1}.
From 0<1x+1,1y+1,1z+1<10<\frac{1}{x+1}, \frac{1}{y+1}, \frac{1}{z+1}<1 it follows that aa+1,bb+1,cc+1<1\frac{a}{a+1}, \frac{b}{b+1}, \frac{c}{c+1}<1, so a+1,b+1,c+1a+1, b+1, c+1 are positive. Moreover, we have aa+1+bb+1+cc+1=0\frac{a}{a+1}+\frac{b}{b+1}+\frac{c}{c+1}=0, i.e. 1a+1+1b+1+1c+1=3\frac{1}{a+1}+\frac{1}{b+1}+\frac{1}{c+1}=3. Now by the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality (a+1)+(b+1)+(c+1)3(a+1)+(b+1)+(c+1) \geqslant 3, i.e. a+b+c0a+b+c \geqslant 0.

Second solution. Multiplying out and grouping, the required inequality reduces to
2(x1)2(yz)2+2(y1)2(zx)2+2(z1)2(xy)2+9(xy2+yz2+zx23xyz)+3(x2y+y2z+z2x3xyz)0 \begin{aligned} & 2(x-1)^{2}(y-z)^{2}+2(y-1)^{2}(z-x)^{2}+2(z-1)^{2}(x-y)^{2} \\ & +9\left(x y^{2}+y z^{2}+z x^{2}-3 x y z\right)+3\left(x^{2} y+y^{2} z+z^{2} x-3 x y z\right) \geqslant 0 \end{aligned}
where all the terms are nonnegative by the AM-GM inequality.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from sr; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.