Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Ireland

Suppose aa, bb, cc are positive numbers such that
(a+b+c)(1a+1b+1c)<5+32. (a + b + c) \left( \frac{1}{a} + \frac{1}{b} + \frac{1}{c} \right) < 5 + 3\sqrt{2} .
Prove that aa, bb, cc are the side lengths of an acute-angled triangle.

Solution

Suppose this is false. Then, without loss of generality, we can assume that a2b2+c2a^2 \ge b^2 + c^2. Since
(a+b+c)(1a+1b+1c)=3+a(1b+1c)+1a(b+c)+bc+cb, (a+b+c) \left( \frac{1}{a} + \frac{1}{b} + \frac{1}{c} \right) = 3 + a \left( \frac{1}{b} + \frac{1}{c} \right) + \frac{1}{a} (b+c) + \frac{b}{c} + \frac{c}{b},
and
bc+cb2, \frac{b}{c} + \frac{c}{b} \ge 2,
the hypothesis tells us that
a(1b+1c)+1a(b+c)<32    (abc+1a)(b+c)<32. a \left( \frac{1}{b} + \frac{1}{c} \right) + \frac{1}{a} (b+c) < 3\sqrt{2} \iff \left( \frac{a}{bc} + \frac{1}{a} \right) (b+c) < 3\sqrt{2}.
But the function
xxbc+1x x \mapsto \frac{x}{bc} + \frac{1}{x}
is strictly increasing on the interval [bc,)[\sqrt{bc}, \infty), and ab2+c22bca \ge \sqrt{b^2+c^2} \ge \sqrt{2bc}.
Hence
(abc+1a)(b+c)(2bc+12bc)(b+c)=32bc(b+c)6bc2bc=32, \begin{aligned} \left(\frac{a}{bc} + \frac{1}{a}\right) (b+c) &\ge \left(\frac{\sqrt{2}}{\sqrt{bc}} + \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\sqrt{bc}}}\right) (b+c) \\ &= \frac{3}{\sqrt{2\sqrt{bc}}} (b+c) \\ &\ge \frac{6\sqrt{bc}}{\sqrt{2}\sqrt{bc}} \\ &= 3\sqrt{2}, \end{aligned}
which conflicts with the hypotheses. Thus a2<b2+c2a^2 < b^2 + c^2. Similarly, b2<c2+a2b^2 < c^2 + a^2, c2<a2+b2c^2 < a^2 + b^2. From these inequalities it follows easily that a<b+ca < b+c, b<c+ab < c+a, c<a+bc < a+b, and from both sets of inequalities it follows that aa, bb, cc are the lengths of the sides of an acute-angled triangle.

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