Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Ibero-American Mathematical Olympiad

Problem:

Given positive real numbers xx, yy, zz each less than π/2\pi / 2, show that π/2+2sinxcosy+2sinycosz>sin2x+sin2y+sin2z\pi / 2 + 2 \sin x \cos y + 2 \sin y \cos z > \sin 2x + \sin 2y + \sin 2z.

Solution

Solution:

We have sin2x+sin2y+sin2z2sinxcosy2sinycosz=2sinx(cosxcosy)+2siny(cosycosz)+2sinzcosz\sin 2x + \sin 2y + \sin 2z - 2 \sin x \cos y - 2 \sin y \cos z = 2 \sin x (\cos x - \cos y) + 2 \sin y (\cos y - \cos z) + 2 \sin z \cos z, so we wish to show that

sinx(cosxcosy)+siny(cosycosz)+sinzcosz<π/2\sin x (\cos x - \cos y) + \sin y (\cos y - \cos z) + \sin z \cos z < \pi / 2 (*).

Figure 1

We have to consider six cases:

(1) xyzx \leq y \leq z;

(2) xzyx \leq z \leq y;

(3) yxzy \leq x \leq z;

(4) yzxy \leq z \leq x;

(5) zxyz \leq x \leq y;

(6) zyxz \leq y \leq x.

The first case is obvious from the diagram, because the lhs represents the shaded area, and the rhs represents the whole quarter circle.

In cases (2) and (5) the second term is negative, and siny<sinx-\sin y < -\sin x, so the sum of the first two terms is less than sinx(cosxcosy)+sinx(cosycosz)=sinx(cosxcosz)\sin x (\cos x - \cos y) + \sin x (\cos y - \cos z) = \sin x (\cos x - \cos z). But by the same argument as the first case the two rectangles represented by sinx(cosxcosz)\sin x (\cos x - \cos z) and sinzcosz\sin z \cos z are disjoint and fit inside the quarter circle. So we have proved (2) and (5).

In cases (3) and (4), the first term is negative. The remaining two terms represent disjoint rectangles lying inside the quarter circle, so again the inequality holds.

In case (6) the first two terms are negative. The last term is 1/2sin2z1/2<π/21/2 \sin 2z \leq 1/2 < \pi / 2, so the inequality certainly holds.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.