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Algebra Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Prove it Saudi Arabia

Let a,b,ca, b, c be positive real numbers. Prove that
1a+b+1abc+1+1b+c+1abc+1+1c+a+1abc+1a+b+ca+b+c+1 \begin{aligned} \frac{1}{a+b+\frac{1}{a b c}+1}+ & \frac{1}{b+c+\frac{1}{a b c}+1}+\frac{1}{c+a+\frac{1}{a b c}+1} \\ & \leq \frac{a+b+c}{a+b+c+1} \end{aligned}

Solution

With the notation d=1abcd=\frac{1}{a b c} the inequality becomes
1a+b+d+1+1b+c+d+1+1c+a+d+1+1a+b+c+11. \frac{1}{a+b+d+1}+\frac{1}{b+c+d+1}+\frac{1}{c+a+d+1}+\frac{1}{a+b+c+1} \leq 1 .
Let x=a4x=\sqrt[4]{a}, y=b4y=\sqrt[4]{b}, z=c4z=\sqrt[4]{c}, w=d4w=\sqrt[4]{d}. Then
xyzw=abcd4=1 x y z w=\sqrt[4]{a b c d}=1
and it suffices to prove that
1x4+y4+z4+zyxw1. \begin{equation*} \sum \frac{1}{x^{4}+y^{4}+z^{4}+z y x w} \leq 1 . \tag{1} \end{equation*}
But x4+y4+z4x2y2+y2z2+z2x2x^{4}+y^{4}+z^{4} \geq x^{2} y^{2}+y^{2} z^{2}+z^{2} x^{2} so
x4+y4+z4=x4+y4+z4+x2y2+y2z2+z2x22=x4+y2z22+y4+z2x22+z4+x2y22x2yz+y2zx+z2xy=xyz(x+y+z) \begin{aligned} x^{4}+y^{4}+z^{4} & =\frac{x^{4}+y^{4}+z^{4}+x^{2} y^{2}+y^{2} z^{2}+z^{2} x^{2}}{2} \\ & =\frac{x^{4}+y^{2} z^{2}}{2}+\frac{y^{4}+z^{2} x^{2}}{2}+\frac{z^{4}+x^{2} y^{2}}{2} \\ & \geq x^{2} y z+y^{2} z x+z^{2} x y=x y z(x+y+z) \end{aligned}
where we used the AM-GM inequality three times. The same result follows from the rearrangement inequality. Hence
1x4+y4+z4+xyzw1xyz(x+y+z)+xyzw=1xyz(x+y+z+w)=wx+y+z+w \begin{gathered} \frac{1}{x^{4}+y^{4}+z^{4}+x y z w} \leq \frac{1}{x y z(x+y+z)+x y z w} \\ =\frac{1}{x y z(x+y+z+w)}=\frac{w}{x+y+z+w} \end{gathered}
and so
1x4+y4+z4+xyzwwx+y+z+w=1 \sum \frac{1}{x^{4}+y^{4}+z^{4}+x y z w} \leq \sum \frac{w}{x+y+z+w}=1

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.