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Algebra Difficulty 6.2 National olympiad Prove it

Let ABCA B C be a scalene triangle with BC=a,AC=bB C=a, A C=b and AB=cA B=c, where a,b,ca, b, c are positive integers. Prove that

ab2+bc2+ca2a2bb2cc2a2 \left|a b^{2}+b c^{2}+c a^{2}-a^{2} b-b^{2} c-c^{2} a\right| \geq 2

Solution

Denote E=ab2+bc2+ca2a2bb2cc2a E = a b^{2} + b c^{2} + c a^{2} - a^{2} b - b^{2} c - c^{2} a . We have

E=(abcc2a)+(ca2a2b)+(bc2b2c)+(ab2abc)=(bc)(aca2bc+ab)=(bc)(a(ca)b(ca))=(bc)(ca)(ab) \begin{aligned} E = & \left(a b c - c^{2} a\right) + \left(c a^{2} - a^{2} b\right) + \left(b c^{2} - b^{2} c\right) + \left(a b^{2} - a b c\right) = \\ & (b - c)\left(a c - a^{2} - b c + a b\right) = (b - c)\left(a (c - a) - b (c - a)\right) = (b - c)(c - a)(a - b) \end{aligned}

So, E=abbcca |E| = |a - b| \cdot |b - c| \cdot |c - a| . By hypothesis each factor from E |E| is a positive integer. We shall prove that at least one factor from E |E| is greater than 1. Suppose that ab=bc=ca=1 |a - b| = |b - c| = |c - a| = 1 . It follows that the numbers ab,bc,ca a - b, b - c, c - a are odd. So, the number 0=(ab)+(bc)+(ca) 0 = (a - b) + (b - c) + (c - a) is also odd, a contradiction. Hence, E112=2 |E| \geq 1 \cdot 1 \cdot 2 = 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.