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Algebra Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it

Let a,b,ca, b, c be real numbers such that 0abc0 \leq a \leq b \leq c. Prove that if

a+b+c=ab+bc+ca>0, a+b+c=a b+b c+c a>0,

then bc(a+1)2\sqrt{b c}(a+1) \geq 2. When does the equality hold?

Solution

Let a+b+c=ab+bc+ca=ka+b+c=ab+bc+ca=k. Since (a+b+c)23(ab+bc+ca)(a+b+c)^{2} \geq 3(ab+bc+ca), we get that k23kk^{2} \geq 3k. Since k>0k>0, we obtain that k3k \geq 3.

We have bccaabbc \geq ca \geq ab, so from the above relation we deduce that bc1bc \geq 1.
By AM-GM, b+c2bcb+c \geq 2 \sqrt{bc} and consequently b+c2b+c \geq 2. The equality holds iff b=cb=c.
The constraint gives us

a=b+cbcb+c1=1bc1b+c11bc12bc1=bc(2bc)2bc1 a=\frac{b+c-bc}{b+c-1}=1-\frac{bc-1}{b+c-1} \geq 1-\frac{bc-1}{2 \sqrt{bc}-1}=\frac{\sqrt{bc}(2-\sqrt{bc})}{2 \sqrt{bc}-1}

For bc=2\sqrt{bc}=2 condition a0a \geq 0 gives bc(a+1)2\sqrt{bc}(a+1) \geq 2 with equality iff a=0a=0 and b=c=2b=c=2.
For bc>2\sqrt{bc}>2 we have bc(a+1)>2(a+1)2\sqrt{bc}(a+1)>2(a+1) \geq 2.
The proof is complete.
The equality holds iff a=b=c=1a=b=c=1 or a=0a=0 and b=c=2b=c=2.

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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.