Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 5 / 294 of 400 #894 of 1964

Problem 894

AIME late
Algebra Difficulty 5.7 Find the answer

## Task 1.

Determine the smallest real number DD such that the inequality

a+ba+2b+b+cb+2c+c+ac+2a<D \frac{a+b}{a+2 b}+\frac{b+c}{b+2 c}+\frac{c+a}{c+2 a}<D

holds for all positive real numbers a,ba, b, and cc.

A number or a short expression. Spacing, $ signs and \frac vs / are all fine.

Official solution

## Solution.

The first addend in the inequality can be written as follows:

a+ba+2b=a+2ba+2bba+2b=1ba+2b=11ab+2=11x+2 \frac{a+b}{a+2 b}=\frac{a+2 b}{a+2 b}-\frac{b}{a+2 b}=1-\frac{b}{a+2 b}=1-\frac{1}{\frac{a}{b}+2}=1-\frac{1}{x+2}

where we denote x=abx=\frac{a}{b}. If we denote y=bcy=\frac{b}{c} and z=caz=\frac{c}{a}, the desired inequality is equivalent to the inequality

1x+2+1y+2+1z+2>3D \frac{1}{x+2}+\frac{1}{y+2}+\frac{1}{z+2}>3-D

under the condition xyz=1x y z=1.

Let's denote the expression on the left side as XX and choose an arbitrary natural number nn. If we substitute x=n,y=n,z=1n2x=n, y=n, z=\frac{1}{n^{2}}, we get:

X=12+1n2+2n+2=n3+6n2+2(2n2+1)(n+2)=12+8n2n+22(2n3+4n2+n+2) X=\frac{1}{2+\frac{1}{n^{2}}}+\frac{2}{n+2}=\frac{n^{3}+6 n^{2}+2}{\left(2 n^{2}+1\right)(n+2)}=\frac{1}{2}+\frac{8 n^{2}-n+2}{2\left(2 n^{3}+4 n^{2}+n+2\right)}

The number 8n2n+22(2n3+4n2+n+2)\frac{8 n^{2}-n+2}{2\left(2 n^{3}+4 n^{2}+n+2\right)} can be an arbitrarily small positive number, so XX can be arbitrarily close to 12\frac{1}{2}.

It remains to prove the inequality: 1x+2+1y+2+1z+2>12\frac{1}{x+2}+\frac{1}{y+2}+\frac{1}{z+2}>\frac{1}{2}.

By multiplying by the common denominator, we see that this inequality is equivalent to

2(y+2)(z+2)+2(z+2)(x+2)+2(x+2)(y+2)>(x+2)(y+2)(z+2) 2(y+2)(z+2)+2(z+2)(x+2)+2(x+2)(y+2)>(x+2)(y+2)(z+2)

or

2(xy+yz+zx)+4(x+y+z)+24>xyz+2(xy+yz+zx)+4(x+y+z)+8 2(x y+y z+z x)+4(x+y+z)+24>x y z+2(x y+y z+z x)+4(x+y+z)+8

i.e., 16>xyz=116>x y z=1, which is obviously true.

Therefore, 3D=123-D=\frac{1}{2}, so D=52D=\frac{5}{2}.

Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic, difficulty and ordering added by this site.