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Algebra Difficulty 4.5 AIME Prove it Soviet Union

Problem:

a, b, c are positive reals. Show that a3+b3+c3+3abcab(a+b)+bc(b+c)+ca(c+a)a^{3} + b^{3} + c^{3} + 3abc \geq ab(a + b) + bc(b + c) + ca(c + a).

Solution

Solution:

The inequality is homogeneous, so we can take a=1a = 1 and put b=1+xb = 1 + x, c=1+yc = 1 + y, where x,y0x, y \geq 0. Then after some reduction the inequality is equivalent to x3+y3+x2+y2x2yxy2xy0x^{3} + y^{3} + x^{2} + y^{2} - x^{2} - y - xy^{2} - xy \geq 0, or (after factorising x3+y3x^{3} + y^{3}) to (x+y+1)(xy)2+xy0(x + y + 1)(x - y)^{2} + xy \geq 0, which is obviously true.

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