Let and be real numbers satisfying .
Show that
Furthermore, determine all pairs of real numbers for which equality holds.
Solution
The inequality (with equality if and only if ) is equivalent to
The constraint gives . Substituting this into the inequality above yields
which is equivalent to
As we noted already, equality holds for . In this case, the constraint becomes which yields or and finally the two pairs and . We easily verify that equality actually holds in both cases.
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