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Algebra Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Prove it JBMO

Problem:

The real positive numbers x,y,zx, y, z satisfy the relations x2x \leq 2, y3y \leq 3, x+y+z=11x+y+z=11. Prove that xyz6\sqrt{x y z} \leq 6.

Solutions — 2

Solution 1

Solution:

For x=2x=2, y=3y=3 and z=6z=6 the equality holds.
After the substitutions x=2ux=2-u, y=3vy=3-v with u[0,2)u \in [0,2), v[0,3)v \in [0,3), we obtain that z=6+u+vz=6+u+v and the required inequality becomes
(2u)(3v)(6+u+v)36 (2-u)(3-v)(6+u+v) \leqslant 36
We shall need the following lemma.

Lemma. If real numbers aa and bb satisfy the relations 0<ba0 < b \leq a, then for every real number y[0,b)y \in [0, b) the inequality
aa+ybyb \frac{a}{a+y} \geqslant \frac{b-y}{b}
holds.

Proof of the lemma. The inequality (2) is equivalent to
ababay+byy2y2+(ab)y0 a b \geq a b - a y + b y - y^{2} \Leftrightarrow y^{2} + (a-b) y \geq 0
The last inequality is true, because ab>0a \geq b > 0 and y0y \geq 0.
The equality in (2) holds if y=0y=0. The lemma is proved.

By using the lemma we can write the following inequalities:
66+u2u266+v3v36+u6+u+v66+v \begin{gathered} \frac{6}{6+u} \geqslant \frac{2-u}{2} \\ \frac{6}{6+v} \geqslant \frac{3-v}{3} \\ \frac{6+u}{6+u+v} \geqslant \frac{6}{6+v} \end{gathered}
By multiplying the inequalities (3), (4) and (5) we obtain:
66(6+u)(6+u)(6+v)(6+u+v)6(2u)(3v)23(6+v)(2u)(3v)(6+u+v)236=36(1) \begin{gathered} \frac{6 \cdot 6 \cdot (6+u)}{(6+u)(6+v)(6+u+v)} \geqslant \frac{6(2-u)(3-v)}{2 \cdot 3 (6+v)} \Leftrightarrow \\ (2-u)(3-v)(6+u+v) \leqslant 2 \cdot 3 \cdot 6 = 36 \Leftrightarrow \quad (1) \end{gathered}
By virtue of lemma, the equality holds if and only if u=v=0u = v = 0.

Solution 2

Solution:

Alternative solution. With the same substitutions write the inequality as
(6uv)(6+u+v)+(uv2uv)(6+u+v)36 (6-u-v)(6+u+v)+(u v-2 u-v)(6+u+v) \leq 36
As the first product on the left-hand side is 36(u+v)23636-(u+v)^{2} \leq 36, it is enough to prove that the second product is nonpositive. This comes easily from u11|u-1| \leq 1, v22|v-2| \leq 2 and uv2uv=(u1)(v2)2u v-2 u-v=(u-1)(v-2)-2, which implies uvv2u0u v-v-2 u \leq 0.

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