Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /2 of 16

Algebra Difficulty 4.5 AIME Prove it Austria

Let aa and bb be real numbers with 0a,b10 \le a, b \le 1.
Prove that
ab+1+ba+11 \frac{a}{b+1} + \frac{b}{a+1} \le 1
and find the cases of equality.

Solution

We clear denominators to get
a(a+1)+b(b+1)(a+1)(b+1),a2+a+b2+bab+a+b+1,a2a+b2babab+1,a(a1)+b(b1)(a1)(b1),(1a)(1b)+a(1a)+b(1b)0. \begin{align*} & a(a+1) + b(b+1) \le (a+1)(b+1), \\ \Leftrightarrow \quad & a^2 + a + b^2 + b \le ab + a + b + 1, \\ \Leftrightarrow \quad & a^2 - a + b^2 - b \le ab - a - b + 1, \\ \Leftrightarrow \quad & a(a-1) + b(b-1) \le (a-1)(b-1), \\ \Leftrightarrow \quad & (1-a)(1-b) + a(1-a) + b(1-b) \ge 0. \end{align*}
The three terms on the left-hand side of the last inequality are clearly all positive or zero for 0a,b10 \le a, b \le 1.
For equality to hold, all three terms have to be zero, that is, a=1a = 1 or b=1b = 1 and a,b{0,1}a, b \in \{0, 1\}.
This gives the three pairs (a,b)=(1,0)(a, b) = (1, 0), (a,b)=(0,1)(a, b) = (0, 1) and (a,b)=(1,1)(a, b) = (1, 1).

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.