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Algebra Difficulty 6.5 National olympiad Find the answer

Example 4.2.3 Let real numbers x1,x2,,x2005[1,1]x_{1}, x_{2}, \cdots, x_{2005} \in[-1,1], find the minimum value of the following expression
P=x1x2+x2x3++x2004x2005+x2005x1P=x_{1} x_{2}+x_{2} x_{3}+\cdots+x_{2004} x_{2005}+x_{2005} x_{1}

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

Solution: Since this inequality is cyclic rather than symmetric, we have specified the order of the variables. If we rely on the relation (xi1)(xi+1)0\left(x_{i}-1\right)\left(x_{i}+1\right) \leq 0, we will not succeed.

Intuitively, we believe that the expression reaches its maximum value when the sequence x1,x2,,x2005x_{1}, x_{2}, \cdots, x_{2005} alternates between 1 and -1. In this case,
P=1(1)+(1)1++(1)1+11=2003P=1 \cdot(-1)+(-1) \cdot 1+\cdots+(-1) \cdot 1+1 \cdot 1=-2003

A precise proof of this conjecture is not so obvious. Although the following solution is simple, it is indeed difficult if you do not have knowledge of convex functions.

First, we note that if x[p,q]x \in[p, q], then each linear function f(x)=ax+bf(x)=a x+b or quadratic function f(x)=ax2+bx+cf(x)=a x^{2}+b x+c has the following important property:
maxx[p,q]f(x)=max{f(p),f(q)}minx[p,q]f(x)=min{f(p),f(q)}\begin{array}{l} \max _{x \in[p, q]} f(x)=\max \{f(p), f(q)\} \\ \min _{x \in[p, q]} f(x)=\min \{f(p), f(q)\} \end{array}

Notice that P=P(x1)P=P\left(x_{1}\right) is a linear function of x1x_{1}, so according to the property of linear functions, PP reaches its minimum value if and only if x1{1,1}x_{1} \in\{-1,1\}. Similarly, for other variables, we get that PP reaches its minimum value if and only if xk{1,1}(k=1,2,,2005)x_{k} \in\{-1,1\} \quad(k=1,2, \cdots, 2005). In this case, we will prove that P2003P \geq-2003. Indeed, there must be at least one k(kN,1k2005)k(k \in \mathbb{N}, 1 \leq k \leq 2005) such that xkxk+10x_{k} x_{k+1} \geq 0. This means xkxk+1=1x_{k} x_{k+1}=1, so k=12005xkxk+12003\sum_{k=1}^{2005} x_{k} x_{k+1} \geq-2003

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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.