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Algebra Difficulty 7.6 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it Hong Kong

For any positive real numbers aa, bb, cc satisfying a+b+c=1a + b + c = 1, prove that
a22bc+2c+b22ca+2a+c22ab+2b5. \sqrt{a^2 - 2bc + 2c} + \sqrt{b^2 - 2ca + 2a} + \sqrt{c^2 - 2ab + 2b} \ge \sqrt{5}.

Solution

Using the condition a+b+c=1a + b + c = 1, we obtain
a22bc+2c=a2+2c(1b)=a2+2c(a+c)=(c+a)2+c2. a^2 - 2bc + 2c = a^2 + 2c(1 - b) = a^2 + 2c(a + c) = (c + a)^2 + c^2.
Similarly, the left-hand side of the inequality becomes
(c+a)2+c2+(a+b)2+a2+(b+c)2+b2. \sqrt{(c + a)^2 + c^2} + \sqrt{(a + b)^2 + a^2} + \sqrt{(b + c)^2 + b^2}.
By the triangle inequality, this is bounded below by
((c+a)+(a+b)+(b+c))2+(c+a+b)2=5. \sqrt{((c + a) + (a + b) + (b + c))^2 + (c + a + b)^2} = \sqrt{5}.
Equality holds when a=b=c=13a = b = c = \frac{1}{3}.

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