AlgebraDifficulty 7.1National olympiad, round 2Find the answer
Find all real numbers x,y,z≥1 satisfying min(x+xyz,y+xyz,z+xyz)=x−1+y−1+z−1.
A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.
Solution
The key Lemma is: a−1+b−1≤ab for all a,b≥1 . Equality holds when (a−1)(b−1)=1 . This is proven easily. a−1+b−1=a−11+1b−1≤(a−1+1)(b−1+1)=ab by Cauchy. Equality then holds when a−1=b−11⟹(a−1)(b−1)=1 . Now assume that x=min(x,y,z) . Now note that, by the Lemma, x−1+y−1+z−1≤x−1+yz≤x(yz+1)=xyz+x . So equality must hold in order for the condition in the problem statement to be met. So (y−1)(z−1)=1 and (x−1)(yz)=1 . If we let z=c , then we can easily compute that y=c−1c,x=c2c2+c−1 . Now it remains to check that x≤y,z . But by easy computations, x=c2c2+c−1≤c=z⟺(c2−1)(c−1)≥0 , which is obvious. Also x=c2c2+c−1≤c−1c=y⟺2c≥1 , which is obvious, since c≥1 . So all solutions are of the form (c2c2+c−1,c−1c,c) , and all permutations for c>1 . Remark: An alternative proof of the key Lemma is the following: By AM-GM, (ab−a−b+1)+1=(a−1)(b−1)+1≥2(a−1)(b−1)ab≥(a−1)+(b−1)+2(a−1)(b−1) . Now taking the square root of both sides gives the desired. Equality holds when (a−1)(b−1)=1 .
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