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Algebra Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it

4. Positive numbers xx and yy are such that x2>x+yx^{2} > x + y and x4>x3+yx^{4} > x^{3} + y. Prove that x3>x2+yx^{3} > x^{2} + y.

Solution

First solution. Rewrite the condition as x2x=x(x1)>yx^{2}-x=x(x-1)>y, x4x3=x3(x1)>yx^{4}-x^{3}=x^{3}(x-1)>y. We need to prove that x3x2=x2(x1)>yx^{3}-x^{2}=x^{2}(x-1)>y. Note that x>1x>1 - otherwise x(x1)0x(x1)>yx(x-1) \leq 0x(x-1)>y. Second solution. Since x2>x+yx^{2}>x+y and x>1,x3>x2+xy>x2+yx>1, x^{3}>x^{2}+x y>x^{2}+y. Third solution. Multiply the inequalities x(x1)>yx(x-1)>y and x3(x1)>yx^{3}(x-1)>y (this is possible since x1>0x-1>0) and take the square root of both sides of the resulting inequality. We obtain the desired inequality x2(x1)>yx^{2}(x-1)>y. Remark. As we can see, the condition x4>x3+yx^{4}>x^{3}+y is redundant, but there are solutions that use it.

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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.