Let and be real numbers satisfying . If
find the minimum value of .
, 2008
Solution
The minimum value of is .
Note that the left-hand side is positive. Therefore, by rewriting the right-hand side as
we know that . Thus, we can apply the AM-GM inequality to obtain
But then . This shows equality should hold, and hence
The first relation gives . The second relation gives for some , and so
Since is an integer, it is obvious that . This yields
Equality holds when .
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