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Algebra Difficulty 4.6 AIME Prove it Saudi Arabia

Let a1+a2++an=0a_{1} + a_{2} + \ldots + a_{n} = 0 and a1+a2++an=1|a_{1}| + |a_{2}| + \ldots + |a_{n}| = 1.
Prove that
a1+2a2++nann12 \left|a_{1} + 2 a_{2} + \ldots + n a_{n}\right| \leq \frac{n-1}{2}

Solutions — 2

Solution 1

Since k=1nak=0\sum_{k=1}^{n} a_{k} = 0, it follows that
k=1nkak=k=1n(kx)ak \sum_{k=1}^{n} k a_{k} = \sum_{k=1}^{n} (k - x) a_{k}
for every xRx \in \mathbb{R}. We obtain
k=1nkak=k=1n(kx)akk=1nkxakM(x)k=1nak=M(x) \begin{aligned} \left|\sum_{k=1}^{n} k a_{k}\right| & = \left|\sum_{k=1}^{n} (k - x) a_{k}\right| \leq \sum_{k=1}^{n} |k - x| \left|a_{k}\right| \\ & \leq M(x) \sum_{k=1}^{n} \left|a_{k}\right| = M(x) \end{aligned}
where M(x)=max{kx:k=1,2,,n}M(x) = \max \{|k - x| : k = 1, 2, \ldots, n\}.
For x=n+12x = \frac{n+1}{2} one has M(x)=n12M(x) = \frac{n-1}{2}, and the conclusion follows.

Solution 2

For each k=1,,nk = 1, \ldots, n, we have
a1++ak+ak+1++ana1++an=1. \left|a_{1} + \ldots + a_{k}\right| + \left|a_{k+1} + \ldots + a_{n}\right| \leq |a_{1}| + \ldots + |a_{n}| = 1.
The relation a1++ak=ak+1++an\left|a_{1} + \ldots + a_{k}\right| = \left|a_{k+1} + \ldots + a_{n}\right| implies
a1++ak12,k=1,,n \left|a_{1} + \ldots + a_{k}\right| \leq \frac{1}{2}, \quad k = 1, \ldots, n
Now we can write
a1+2a2++nana1++an+a2++an++ann12, \begin{aligned} \left|a_{1} + 2 a_{2} + \ldots + n a_{n}\right| & \leq |a_{1} + \ldots + a_{n}| + |a_{2} + \ldots + a_{n}| + \ldots + |a_{n}| \\ & \leq \frac{n-1}{2}, \end{aligned}
and we are done.

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