Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 6.3 National olympiad Prove it

Example 6 For any real numbers a,ba, b, we have (a+b2)(a2+b22)(a3+b32)2a6+b62\left(\frac{a+b}{2}\right)\left(\frac{a^{2}+b^{2}}{2}\right)\left(\frac{a^{3}+b^{3}}{2}\right)^{2} \leqslant \frac{a^{6}+b^{6}}{2}. (1963 Polish Mathematical Competition Problem)

Solution

Prove that because a6+b6a4b2+a2b4a^{6}+b^{6} \geqslant a^{4} b^{2}+a^{2} b^{4}, we have 2(a6+b6)(a4+b4)(a2+b2)2\left(a^{6}+b^{6}\right) \geqslant\left(a^{4}+b^{4}\right)\left(a^{2}+b^{2}\right), so
(a2+b22)(a4+b42)a6+b62\left(\frac{a^{2}+b^{2}}{2}\right)\left(\frac{a^{4}+b^{4}}{2}\right) \leqslant \frac{a^{6}+b^{6}}{2}

For any a,ba, b, we have a4+b4a3b+ab3a^{4}+b^{4} \geqslant a^{3} b+a b^{3}, so
2(a4+b4)(a3+b3)(a+b)2\left(a^{4}+b^{4}\right) \geqslant\left(a^{3}+b^{3}\right)(a+b)

So
(a+b2)(a3+b32)a6+b62\left(\frac{a+b}{2}\right)\left(\frac{a^{3}+b^{3}}{2}\right) \leqslant \frac{a^{6}+b^{6}}{2}

From (1) and (2), we get
(a+b2)(a2+b22)(a3+b32)a6+b62\left(\frac{a+b}{2}\right)\left(\frac{a^{2}+b^{2}}{2}\right)\left(\frac{a^{3}+b^{3}}{2}\right) \leqslant \frac{a^{6}+b^{6}}{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.