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Algebra Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Prove it Austria

Let aa, bb, cc be pairwise distinct natural numbers.
Prove that
a3+b3+c33abc+a+b+c. \frac{a^3 + b^3 + c^3}{3} \ge abc + a + b + c.
When does equality hold?

Solution

It is well-known and easily verified that
a3+b3+c33abc=12(a+b+c)((ab)2+(bc)2+(ca)2).(1) a^3 + b^3 + c^3 - 3abc = \frac{1}{2}(a + b + c)((a - b)^2 + (b - c)^2 + (c - a)^2). \quad (1)
Assume without loss of generality that a>b>c0a > b > c \ge 0. Since the numbers are integers, we obtain ab1a - b \ge 1, bc1b - c \ge 1 and ac2a - c \ge 2.
Equation (1) now implies
a3+b3+c33abc12(a+b+c)(1+1+4)=3(a+b+c) a^3 + b^3 + c^3 - 3abc \ge \frac{1}{2}(a + b + c)(1 + 1 + 4) = 3(a + b + c)
as desired.
Equality holds for a=b+1a = b + 1, b=c+1b = c + 1 and a=c+2a = c + 2, which are exactly the triples (t+2,t+1,t)(t + 2, t + 1, t) where t0t \ge 0 is an integer, and for all their permutations.

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