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Algebra Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it Ibero-American Mathematical Olympiad

Problem:

Find all solutions in real numbers x1,x2,,xn+1x_{1}, x_{2}, \ldots, x_{n+1} all at least 11 such that:

(1) x11/2+x21/3+x31/4++xn1/(n+1)=nxn+11/2x_{1}^{1/2} + x_{2}^{1/3} + x_{3}^{1/4} + \ldots + x_{n}^{1/(n+1)} = n x_{n+1}^{1/2};

and

(2) x1+x2++xnn=xn+1\dfrac{x_{1} + x_{2} + \ldots + x_{n}}{n} = x_{n+1}.

Solution

Solution:

By Cauchy-Schwarz, (xi1/2)2(1)(xi)\left(\sum x_{i}^{1/2}\right)^{2} \leq \left(\sum 1\right)\left(\sum x_{i}\right), with equality if and only if all xix_{i} are equal. In other words, if we put xn+1=x1+x2++xnnx_{n+1} = \dfrac{x_{1} + x_{2} + \ldots + x_{n}}{n}, then xi1/2nxn+11/2\sum x_{i}^{1/2} \leq n x_{n+1}^{1/2}.

But since all xi1x_{i} \geq 1, we have

x11/2+x21/3+x31/4++xn1/(n+1)xi1/2x_{1}^{1/2} + x_{2}^{1/3} + x_{3}^{1/4} + \ldots + x_{n}^{1/(n+1)} \leq \sum x_{i}^{1/2}

with equality if and only if x2=x3==xn=1x_{2} = x_{3} = \ldots = x_{n} = 1.

Hence

x11/2+x21/3+x31/4++xn1/(n+1)xn+11/2x_{1}^{1/2} + x_{2}^{1/3} + x_{3}^{1/4} + \ldots + x_{n}^{1/(n+1)} \leq x_{n+1}^{1/2}

with equality if and only if all xi=1x_{i} = 1.

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