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Algebra Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it Austria

The nonnegative real numbers aa and bb satisfy a+b=1a + b = 1. Prove that
12a3+b3a2+b21. \frac{1}{2} \le \frac{a^3 + b^3}{a^2 + b^2} \le 1.
When do we have equality in the right inequality and when in the left inequality?

Solution

a3+b3a2+b2=(a+b)a2ab+b2a2+b2=1aba2+b2. \frac{a^3 + b^3}{a^2 + b^2} = (a + b) \frac{a^2 - ab + b^2}{a^2 + b^2} = 1 - \frac{ab}{a^2 + b^2}.
From this the right inequality is evident with equality for ab=0ab = 0, i.e. for a=0a = 0, b=1b = 1 and for a=1a = 1, b=0b = 0.

The left inequality is equivalent to
121aba2+b2    aba2+b212    2aba2+b2    0(ab)2. \frac{1}{2} \le 1 - \frac{ab}{a^2 + b^2} \iff \frac{ab}{a^2 + b^2} \le \frac{1}{2} \iff 2ab \le a^2 + b^2 \iff 0 \le (a - b)^2.
This inequality is obvious with equality for a=12a = \frac{1}{2}. In this case also b=12b = \frac{1}{2}.

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