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Belarusian Mathematical Olympiad

Algebra Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it Belarus

Given positive real numbers aa, bb, cc. Find the greatest real number xx such that there exist positive real numbers pp, qq, rr (p+q+r=1p + q + r = 1) with x≤min⁡{ap/q,bq/r,cr/p}x \le \min\{ap/q, bq/r, cr/p\}.

Solution

Answer: abc3\sqrt[3]{abc}.
We can consider x>0x > 0. Multiplying three inequalities x≤ap/qx \le ap/q, x≤bq/rx \le bq/r, x≤cr/px \le cr/p, we obtain x≤abc3x \le \sqrt[3]{abc}.
It remains to show that the number abc3\sqrt[3]{abc} satisfies the problem condition. It suffices to verify that the system of the equations (with unknown p,q,rp, q, r)
{abc3=apq,abc3=bqr,p+q+r=1 \begin{cases} \sqrt[3]{abc} = a \frac{p}{q}, \\ \sqrt[3]{abc} = b \frac{q}{r}, \\ p + q + r = 1 \end{cases}
has a positive solution (p;q;r)(p; q; r). From the first two equations we present pp and rr as the functions of qq and then replace pp and qq by these presentations in the third equation. So we find the positive solution
p=yqa,r=bqy,q=1(ya+by+1),wherey=abc3, p = \frac{yq}{a}, \quad r = \frac{bq}{y}, \quad q = \frac{1}{\left(\frac{y}{a} + \frac{b}{y} + 1\right)}, \quad \text{where} \quad y = \sqrt[3]{abc},
as required.

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