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Algebra Difficulty 8.0 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it

\square
Example 4 Let {a1,a2,a3,}\left\{a_{1}, a_{2}, a_{3}, \cdots\right\} be an infinite sequence of positive numbers. Prove the inequality n=1Nan24n=1Nαn2\sum_{n=1}^{N} a_{n}^{2} \leqslant 4 \sum_{n=1}^{N} \alpha_{n}^{2} for any positive integer NN. Here αn\alpha_{n} is the average of a1,a2,a3,,ana_{1}, a_{2}, a_{3}, \cdots, a_{n}, i.e., αn=a1+a2+a3++ann\alpha_{n}=\frac{a_{1}+a_{2}+a_{3}+\cdots+a_{n}}{n}. (2005 China Mathematical Olympiad Problem)

Solution

Prove that αn=a1+a2+a3++ann\alpha_{n}=\frac{a_{1}+a_{2}+a_{3}+\cdots+a_{n}}{n} satisfies
αn22αnan=an22αn[nαn(n1)αn1]=(12n)αn2+2(n1)αnαn1(12n)αn2+(n1)(αn2+αn12)=nαn2+(n1)αn12\begin{aligned} \alpha_{n}^{2}-2 \alpha_{n} a_{n} & =a_{n}^{2}-2 \alpha_{n}\left[n \alpha_{n}-(n-1) \alpha_{n-1}\right] \\ & =(1-2 n) \alpha_{n}^{2}+2(n-1) \alpha_{n} \alpha_{n-1} \\ & \leqslant(1-2 n) \alpha_{n}^{2}+(n-1)\left(\alpha_{n}^{2}+\alpha_{n-1}^{2}\right) \\ & =-n \alpha_{n}^{2}+(n-1) \alpha_{n-1}^{2} \end{aligned}

Summing from n=1n=1 to NN, we have

that is \square
n=1Nαn22n=1NαnanNαN20\sum_{n=1}^{N} \alpha_{n}^{2}-2 \sum_{n=1}^{N} \alpha_{n} a_{n} \leqslant-N \alpha_{N}^{2} \leqslant 0
n=1Nαn22n=1Nαnan\sum_{n=1}^{N} \alpha_{n}^{2} \leqslant 2 \sum_{n=1}^{N} \alpha_{n} a_{n}

Applying the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality to the right-hand side of the above equation, we get
n=1Nαn22(n=1Nan2)(n=1Nan2),\sum_{n=1}^{N} \alpha_{n}^{2} \leqslant 2 \sqrt{\left(\sum_{n=1}^{N} a_{n}^{2}\right)\left(\sum_{n=1}^{N} a_{n}^{2}\right)},

Dividing both sides of the above equation by n=1Nan2\sqrt{\sum_{n=1}^{N} a_{n}^{2}} and squaring, we get
n=1Nαn24n=1Nan2\sum_{n=1}^{N} \alpha_{n}^{2} \leqslant 4 \sum_{n=1}^{N} a_{n}^{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.