Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.9 AIME, harder Prove it Nordic Mathematical Olympiad

Problem:
Let a1,a2,,ana_{1}, a_{2}, \ldots, a_{n} be real numbers. Prove
a13+a23++an33a12+a22++an2 \sqrt[3]{a_{1}^{3}+a_{2}^{3}+\ldots+a_{n}^{3}} \leq \sqrt{a_{1}^{2}+a_{2}^{2}+\ldots+a_{n}^{2}}
When does equality hold in (1)?

Solution

Solution:
If 0x10 \leq x \leq 1, then x3/2xx^{3 / 2} \leq x, and equality holds if and only if x=0x=0 or x=1x=1.

The inequality is true as an equality if all the aka_{k}'s are zero. Assume that at least one of the numbers aka_{k} is non-zero. Set
xk=ak2j=1naj2 x_{k}=\frac{a_{k}^{2}}{\sum_{j=1}^{n} a_{j}^{2}}
Then 0xk10 \leq x_{k} \leq 1, and by the remark above,
k=1n(ak2j=1naj2)3/2k=1nak2j=1naj2=1 \sum_{k=1}^{n}\left(\frac{a_{k}^{2}}{\sum_{j=1}^{n} a_{j}^{2}}\right)^{3 / 2} \leq \sum_{k=1}^{n} \frac{a_{k}^{2}}{\sum_{j=1}^{n} a_{j}^{2}}=1
So
k=1nak3(j=1naj2)3/2 \sum_{k=1}^{n} a_{k}^{3} \leq\left(\sum_{j=1}^{n} a_{j}^{2}\right)^{3 / 2}
which is what was supposed to be proved. For equality, exactly one xkx_{k} has to be one and the rest have to be zero, which is equivalent to having exactly one of the aka_{k}'s positive and the rest zero.

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