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Algebra Difficulty 6.8 National olympiad Prove it

Example 8 Given that a,ba, b are positive numbers, nn is a positive integer, and sin4θa+cos4θb=1a+b\frac{\sin ^{4} \theta}{a}+\frac{\cos ^{4} \theta}{b}=\frac{1}{a+b}.

Solution

Prove: sin2nθan1+cos2nθbn1=1(a+b)n1\frac{\sin ^{2 n} \theta}{a^{n-1}}+\frac{\cos ^{2 n} \theta}{b^{n-1}}=\frac{1}{(a+b)^{n-1}}.
Proof: By the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, we have
1=(a+b)(sin4θa+cos4θb)(asin2θa+bcos2θb)2=(sin2θ+cos2θ)2=1\begin{array}{l} 1=(a+b)\left(\frac{\sin ^{4} \theta}{a}+\frac{\cos ^{4} \theta}{b}\right) \\ \geqslant\left(\sqrt{a} \cdot \frac{\sin ^{2} \theta}{\sqrt{a}}+\sqrt{b} \cdot \frac{\cos ^{2} \theta}{\sqrt{b}}\right)^{2} \\ =\left(\sin ^{2} \theta+\cos ^{2} \theta\right)^{2}=1 \end{array}

Furthermore, by the condition for equality in the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, we get
sin2θa=cos2θb=sin2θ+cos2θa+b=1a+b.\frac{\sin ^{2} \theta}{a}=\frac{\cos ^{2} \theta}{b}=\frac{\sin ^{2} \theta+\cos ^{2} \theta}{a+b}=\frac{1}{a+b} .

Thus, sin2θ=aa+b,cos2θ=ba+b\sin ^{2} \theta=\frac{a}{a+b}, \cos ^{2} \theta=\frac{b}{a+b}.
Therefore, sin2nθan1+cos2nθbn1\frac{\sin ^{2 n} \theta}{a^{n-1}}+\frac{\cos ^{2 n} \theta}{b^{n-1}}
=(aa+b)n1an1+(ba+b)n1bn1=a+b(a+b)n=1(a+b)n1\begin{array}{l} =\left(\frac{a}{a+b}\right)^{n} \frac{1}{a^{n-1}}+\left(\frac{b}{a+b}\right)^{n} \frac{1}{b^{n-1}} \\ =\frac{a+b}{(a+b)^{n}}=\frac{1}{(a+b)^{n-1}} \end{array}

Note: The special aspect of this problem is that, for given positive numbers aa and bb, the expression sin4θa+cos4θb\frac{\sin ^{4} \theta}{a}+\frac{\cos ^{4} \theta}{b} achieves its maximum value 1a+b\frac{1}{a+b}, which uniquely determines sin2θ\sin ^{2} \theta and cos2θ\cos ^{2} \theta:
sin2θ=aa+b,cos2θ=ba+b\sin ^{2} \theta=\frac{a}{a+b}, \cos ^{2} \theta=\frac{b}{a+b}

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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.