The AM-GM Inequality

MICHAEL D. HIRSCHHORN

The AM-GM (= arithmetic mean-geometric mean) inequality,

(xl + "'" + x,7)->

--Xl"''xn (allxk>O)
n

is n o t o r i o u s l y d i f f i c u l t t o p r o v e .
Let me present a simple proof.
Observe that

x ~+1 - ( n + 1)x+ n = (x- 1)2(x "-1 + 2x n-2" 9 9 + n)--> 0 for x> O.

X 1 q- 9 9 9 q- Xn+ 1 X 1 -t- 9 9 9 -'}'- X n a

Now suppose Xl, 9 9 9 , x . + l > 0, a n d l e t a = , b = , and x = --
n+l n b
We have:

or~

a n+l >-- ( ( r l + 1)a - nb)b",

or~

--Xn+l

The AM-GM inequality follows by induction o n n.

School of Mathematics and Statistics,

UNSW
Sydney 2052, Australia
e-mail: mikeh@maths.unsw.edu.au

9 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, inc., Volume 29, Number 4, 2007 7