2008 BLUE MOP, INEQUALITIES-III

ALI GUREL

(1) (Korea-98) Let x, y, z > 0 with x + y + z = xyz. Show that

1 1 1 3
+p +
1+x 2 1 + y2 1+z 2 2

(2) (MOP-02) For positive numbers a, b, c, prove that

  23   23   32
2a 2b 2c
+ + 3.
b+c c+a a+b

(3) Let a, b, c > 0 satisfying abc = 1. Prove that

1 1 1
q +q +q 2.
b + a1 + 12 c + 1b + 12 a + 1c + 1
2

(4) Let a, b, c > 0 satisfying a + b + c = 1. Show that

a b abc 3 3
+ + 1+
a + bc b + ca c + ab 4

(5) (KMO-01) Prove that for all a, b, c > 0,

p p
(a2 b + b2 c + c2 a)(ab2 + bc2 + ca2 ) abc + 3 (a3 + abc)(b3 + abc)(c3 + abc)

(6) (APMO-05) Let a, b, c > 0 such that abc = 8. Prove that

a2 b2 c2 4
p +p +p
(1 + a3 )(1 + b3 ) (1 + b3 )(1 + c3 ) (1 + c3 )(1 + a3 ) 3

(7) (IMO-01) Let a, b, c be positive numbers. Prove that

a b c
+ + 1.
2
a + 8bc 2
b + 8ca 2
c + 8ab

(8) (Latvia-02) Let a, b, c, d be positive real numbers such that

1 1 1 1
4
+ 4
+ 4
+ =1
1+a 1+b 1+c 1 + d4
Prove that abcd 3.
1
2 2008 BLUE MOP, INEQUALITIES-III ALI GUREL

Problem 1, Solution by Sam Keller: Let x = tan A, y = tan B, and c =

tan C. Because x + y + z = xyz, A, B, C are three angles of a triangle. Also
1
because x, y, z > 0 the triangle is acute. Then since 1+x 2
= cos A, we want
3
cos A + cos B + cos C 2 . Because x cos x is concave on [0, .2), by Jensens
inequality
 
A+B+C  3
cos A + cos B + cos C 3 cos = 3 cos = 
3 3 2

  23
2a 3a
Problem 2, Solution by Zhifan Zhang: We claim that b+c a+b+c . Ob-
serve that the cyclic sum of this inequality gives the desired inequality. Since this
inequality is homogenous, after normalization we may assume that a + b + c = 1
and 0 < a < 1. Then after cubing both sides and simplifying it becomes equivalent
4
to a(1 a)2 27 , which follows from AM-GM on the three numbers 2a, 1 a and
1a 

Problem 3, Solution by Taylor Han: Note that x + y + 1 > 2x + 2y + 1.
Adding a cyclic sum of these, and using that abc = 1, we get

 
X 1 1 1 1
> 2 + +
b + a1 + 1 c + 1b + 1 a + 1c + 1
q
cyc b + a1 + 12
1
 
1 b a
= 2 1 + 1 + 1 = 2
b+ a +1 a +1+b 1+b+ a

Problem 4, Solution by Wenyu Cao: By AM-GM, ab+3c 2 3abc. Thus,

abc 3(ab + 3c) 3 3c
= +
c + ab 6(ab + c) 6 3(c + ab)
Furthermore,
2ab 2c
a b a(b + c) + b(a + c) c + a+b c 1c 2
+ = = = +
a + bc b + bc (a + b)(b + c)(c + a) c + ab c + ab 1c
Thus, it suffices to show that



1 + 33 c 2c
1c 2 7 3
+ 1+
c + ab 1c 12
 
Note that 1 + 33 c 1c 2c
0 for all 0 c 1. Thus, by AM-GM we get
   
1 + 33 c 1c2c
2 1 + 3
3 2c
c 1c 2
+ +
c + ab 1c 1c 2 1 c


c+ 2

Let f (c) denote the RHS of the last inequality. After0 some calculations we find
that, f 0 (7 4 3) = 0 and investigating the sign of f we see that the maximum

7 3
value of f is f (7 4 3) = 1 + 12 . Hence, we are done 
 2008 BLUE MOP, INEQUALITIES-III ALI GUREL
3

Problem 5, Solution by Damien Jiang: Dividing both sides by abc and letting
x = ab , y = cb , and z = ac we get the equivalent inequality:
p p
(xy + yz + zx)(x + y + z) 1+ 3 (x + y)(y + z)(z + x), where x, y, z > 0, and xyz = 1.
Let A = (x+y)(y +z)(z +x). Note that (xy +yz +zx)(x+y +z) = A+xyz = A+1.
3
So it remains to prove that
A + 1 1 + A which after squaring and simplifying
becomes equivalent to( 3 A 2)( 3 A + 1) 0. Finally this follows from AM-GM,
i.e. A 8xyz = 8 or 3 A 2 

1
Problem 6, Solution by Damien Jiang (finally): First note that
3
1+x3

2 2 2
2 a b c
2+x2 .Using this and letting x = , y = , z = , it suffices to prove the following
4 4 4
inequality:
x y z 1
+ +
(1 + 2x)(1 + 2y) (1 + 2y)(1 + 2z) (1 + 2z)(1 + 2x) 3
where x, y, z > 0 such that xyz = 1. After multiplying out and canceling terms, we
get the equivalent inequality
(x + y + z) + 2(xy + yz + zx) 9,
which follows from AM-GM, since xyz = 1 

Problem 7, Solution by Minseon Shin: By weighted Jensen on the convex

function f (x) = 1x , we have
a b c

a2 +8bc
+
b2 +8ac
+
c2 +8ab 1
q
a+b+c a(a2 +8bc)+b(b2 +8ca)+c(c2 +8ab)
a+b+c

We need to show that

a+b+c
q 1,
a3 +b3 +c3 +24abc
a+b+c

which is equivalent to
X X
(a + b + c)3 a3 + b3 + c3 + 24abc a2 b abc
sym sym

which is Muirhead inequality: [2, 1, 0] [1, 1, 1] 

Problem 8, Solution by Joshua Pfeffer: Let log S = log a+log b+log c+log d <
1
log 3. Observe that the function x 1+e 4x is convex. So by Jensens Inequality:

X 1 X 1 4
1= 4
= 4 log a
,
cyc
1 + a cyc
1 + e 1 + elog S
which implies that S 3, as desired