Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /265 of 520

Algebra Difficulty 6.6 National olympiad Prove it

\square Example 9 Let x,y,zx, y, z be non-negative real numbers, and x+y+z=1x+y+z=1, prove: 0yz+0 \leqslant y z+ zx+xy2xyz727z x+x y-2 x y z \leqslant \frac{7}{27}. (25th IMO Problem)

Solution

Proof: By symmetry, we may assume xyzx \geqslant y \geqslant z, thus 1=x+y+z3z1=x+y+z \geqslant 3 z, which means z13z \leqslant \frac{1}{3}. Therefore, 2xyz23xyxy2 x y z \leqslant \frac{2}{3} x y \leqslant x y, hence
yz+zx+xy2xyz0y z+z x+x y-2 x y z \geqslant 0

For the right inequality, we can consider using the mean substitution: Let x+y=12+t,z=12tx+y=\frac{1}{2}+t, z=\frac{1}{2}-t, then by x+y2zx+y \geqslant 2 z we get 16t12\frac{1}{6} \leqslant t \leqslant \frac{1}{2}, thus
yz+zx+xy2xyz=14t2+xy2t14t2+2t(x+y2)2=14t2+t2(12+t)2=14+142t(12t)(12t)14+14[2t+(12t)+(12t)3]3=727.\begin{array}{l} y z+z x+x y-2 x y z=\frac{1}{4}-t^{2}+x y-2 t \\ \leqslant \frac{1}{4}-t^{2}+2 t\left(\frac{x+y}{2}\right)^{2}=\frac{1}{4}-t^{2}+\frac{t}{2}\left(\frac{1}{2}+t\right)^{2} \\ =\frac{1}{4}+\frac{1}{4} \cdot 2 t \cdot\left(\frac{1}{2}-t\right)\left(\frac{1}{2}-t\right) \\ \leqslant \frac{1}{4}+\frac{1}{4}\left[\frac{2 t+\left(\frac{1}{2}-t\right)+\left(\frac{1}{2}-t\right)}{3}\right]^{3}=\frac{7}{27} . \end{array}

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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