Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /522 of 860

Algebra Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Find the answer

Suppose that xx and yy are positive real numbers such that x2xy+2y2=8x^{2}-xy+2y^{2}=8. Find the maximum possible value of x2+xy+2y2x^{2}+xy+2y^{2}.

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

Solution

Let u=x2+2y2u=x^{2}+2y^{2}. By AM-GM, u8xyu \geq \sqrt{8}xy, so xyu8xy \leq \frac{u}{\sqrt{8}}. If we let xy=kuxy=ku where k18k \leq \frac{1}{\sqrt{8}}, then we have u(1k)=8u(1-k)=8 and u(1+k)=x2+xy+2y2u(1+k)=x^{2}+xy+2y^{2}, that is, u(1+k)=81+k1ku(1+k)=8 \cdot \frac{1+k}{1-k}. It is not hard to see that the maximum value of this expression occurs at k=18k=\frac{1}{\sqrt{8}}, so the maximum value is 81+18118=72+32278 \cdot \frac{1+\frac{1}{\sqrt{8}}}{1-\frac{1}{\sqrt{8}}}=\frac{72+32 \sqrt{2}}{7}.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: Omni-MATH, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.