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Algebra Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Find the answer

Let a,b,ca, b, c be positive real numbers such that a+b+c=10a+b+c=10 and ab+bc+ca=25a b+b c+c a=25. Let m=min{ab,bc,ca}m=\min \{a b, b c, c a\}. Find the largest possible value of mm.

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

Solution

Without loss of generality, we assume that cbac \geq b \geq a. We see that 3ca+b+c=103 c \geq a+b+c=10. Therefore, c103c \geq \frac{10}{3}. Since 0(ab)2=(a+b)24ab=(10c)24(25c(a+b))=(10c)24(25c(10c))=c(203c)0 \leq(a-b)^{2} =(a+b)^{2}-4 a b =(10-c)^{2}-4(25-c(a+b)) =(10-c)^{2}-4(25-c(10-c)) =c(20-3 c) we obtain c203c \leq \frac{20}{3}. Consider m=min{ab,bc,ca}=abm=\min \{a b, b c, c a\}=a b, as bccaabb c \geq c a \geq a b. We compute ab=25c(a+b)=25c(10c)=(c5)2a b=25-c(a+b)=25-c(10-c)=(c-5)^{2}. Since 103c203\frac{10}{3} \leq c \leq \frac{20}{3}, we get that ab259a b \leq \frac{25}{9}. Therefore, m259m \leq \frac{25}{9} in all cases and the equality can be obtained when (a,b,c)=(53,53,203)(a, b, c)=\left(\frac{5}{3}, \frac{5}{3}, \frac{20}{3}\right).

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