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Algebra Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it Ireland

Determine all pairs of real numbers (m,c)(m, c) such that for all x0x \ge 0
mx+cx3. mx + c \le x^3.

Solution

Suppose (m,c)(m, c) is an allowable pair. Since the inequality must hold when x=0x = 0, we see immediately that cc cannot be positive. Moreover,
mx3cx,x>0, m \le \frac{x^3 - c}{x}, \quad \forall x > 0,
and so, if c=0c = 0, then m0m \le 0. Otherwise, c<0c < 0, and so, by the AM-GM inequality,
x3cx=x2+(c)x=x2+(c)2x+(c)2x3x2(c)2x(c)2x3=3c243, \begin{aligned} \frac{x^3 - c}{x} &= x^2 + \frac{(-c)}{x} = x^2 + \frac{(-c)}{2x} + \frac{(-c)}{2x} \\ &\ge 3\sqrt[3]{x^2 \frac{(-c)}{2x} \frac{(-c)}{2x}} = 3\sqrt[3]{\frac{c^2}{4}}, \end{aligned}
with equality iff
x2=c2x, i.e. c=2x3. x^2 = \frac{-c}{2x}, \text{ i.e. } c = -2x^3.
Hence, using this value of xx we obtain,
mx3cx=3x2 m \le \frac{x^3 - c}{x} = 3x^2
Thus, we have shown that either
(i) c=0c = 0 and m0m \le 0, or
(ii) c=2x3c = -2x^3 for some x>0x > 0, and m3x2m \le 3x^2.

Conversely, suppose m3s2m \le 3s^2, c=2s3c = -2s^3 for some s0s \ge 0. Then for all x0x \ge 0
mx+c3s2x2s3.mx + c \le 3s^2x - 2s^3. But 3s2x2s3x33s^2x - 2s^3 \le x^3 is equivalent to
0x33s2x+2s3=(xs)(x2+sx2s2)=(xs)2(x+2s), 0 \le x^3 - 3s^2x + 2s^3 = (x - s)(x^2 + sx - 2s^2) = (x - s)^2(x + 2s),
which is true for all x0x \ge 0. It follows that
{(m,c):c=2s3,m3s2, for some s0}={(m,c):c0,27c24m30} \begin{aligned} & \{(m, c) : c = -2s^3, m \le 3s^2, \text{ for some } s \ge 0\} \\ &= \{(m, c) : c \le 0, 27c^2 - 4m^3 \ge 0\} \end{aligned}
is the set of allowable pairs.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.