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Algebra Difficulty 6.8 National olympiad Prove it

2. Let nn be an integer greater than 1 and let x1,x2,,xnx_{1}, x_{2}, \ldots, x_{n} be real numbers such that
x1+x2++xn=1 and x1+x2++xn=0. \left|x_{1}\right|+\left|x_{2}\right|+\cdots+\left|x_{n}\right|=1 \text { and } x_{1}+x_{2}+\cdots+x_{n}=0 .

Prove that
x11+x22++xnn12(11n). \left|\frac{x_{1}}{1}+\frac{x_{2}}{2}+\cdots+\frac{x_{n}}{n}\right| \leq \frac{1}{2}\left(1-\frac{1}{n}\right) .

Solution

Solution. The following lemma can be proved by direct simplification.
Lemma. Let Sk=a1+a2++akS_{k}=a_{1}+a_{2}+\cdots+a_{k}. Then
k=1nakbk=Snbn+k=1n1Sk(bkbk+1). \sum_{k=1}^{n} a_{k} b_{k}=S_{n} b_{n}+\sum_{k=1}^{n-1} S_{k}\left(b_{k}-b_{k+1}\right) .

Let Si=x1+x2++xiS_{i}=x_{1}+x_{2}+\cdots+x_{i}. By the given condition, Sn=0S_{n}=0 and Si12\left|S_{i}\right| \leq \frac{1}{2} for i=1,,n1i=1, \cdots, n-1. To see this, suppose Si>12\left|S_{i}\right|>\frac{1}{2}. Then 1=x1+x2++1=\left|x_{1}\right|+\left|x_{2}\right|+\cdots+ xnx1++xi+xi+1++xn=Si+Si=2Si>1\left|x_{n}\right| \geq\left|x_{1}+\cdots+x_{i}\right|+\left|x_{i+1}+\cdots+x_{n}\right|=\left|S_{i}\right|+\left|-S_{i}\right|=2\left|S_{i}\right|>1, which is a contradiction. By the lemma, we have
k=1nxkk=Sn1n+k=1n1Sk(1k1k+1). \sum_{k=1}^{n} \frac{x_{k}}{k}=S_{n} \cdot \frac{1}{n}+\sum_{k=1}^{n-1} S_{k}\left(\frac{1}{k}-\frac{1}{k+1}\right) .

Thus
k=1nxkk=k=1n1Sk(1k1k+1)k=1n1Sk(1k1k+1)k=1n112(1k1k+1)=12(11n). \begin{aligned} \left|\sum_{k=1}^{n} \frac{x_{k}}{k}\right| & =\left|\sum_{k=1}^{n-1} S_{k}\left(\frac{1}{k}-\frac{1}{k+1}\right)\right| \leq \sum_{k=1}^{n-1}\left|S_{k}\right|\left(\frac{1}{k}-\frac{1}{k+1}\right) \\ & \leq \sum_{k=1}^{n-1} \frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{1}{k}-\frac{1}{k+1}\right)=\frac{1}{2}\left(1-\frac{1}{n}\right) . \end{aligned}

Second Solution. The inequality is achievable when x1=±12x_{1}= \pm \frac{1}{2} and xn=12x_{n}=\mp \frac{1}{2} and the rest of xi=0x_{i}=0. So the inequality can be proved by the smoothing principle.
Let a1ak0a_{1} \geq \cdots \geq a_{k} \geq 0 be the nonnegative terms among the xix_{i} 's and b1b_{1} \leq b2bl<0b_{2} \leq \cdots \leq b_{l}<0 be the negative terms among the xix_{i} 's. Then we have a1++ak=1/2a_{1}+\cdots+a_{k}=1 / 2 and b1++bl=1/2b_{1}+\cdots+b_{l}=-1 / 2.
Without loss of generality, we can assume that the contribution from the nonnegative terms are greater than the contributions from the negative terms in the LHS. Note that for 0<i<j0<i<j, and x,y0x, y \geq 0, we have x/i+y/jx / i+y / j \leq (x+y)/i+0/j(x+y) / i+0 / j. Applying this, we see that the LHS is less than or equal to
i=1kai1+02++0n1+i=1kbin=12(11n). \frac{\sum_{i=1}^{k} a_{i}}{1}+\frac{0}{2}+\cdots+\frac{0}{n-1}+\frac{\sum_{i=1}^{k} b_{i}}{n}=\frac{1}{2}\left(1-\frac{1}{n}\right) .

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.