Inequality in entrance exam

Viet Quoc Hoang July 4, 2012

Problem Let x, y, z be real numbers such that x + y + z = 0. Find the minimum value of the following expression P = 3|xy| + 3|yz| + 3|zx| Solution We have the following lemma Lemma 1. 6(x2 + y 2 + z 2 ) = 2[(x y)2 + (y z)2 + (z x)2 ] Let a = x y, b = y z, c = z x. Thus, we equivalently need to nd the minimum value of P = 3|a| + 3|b| + 3|c| 2(a2 + b2 + c2 ) 6(x2 + y 2 + z 2 )

subject to the condition a + b + c = 0. We further have another important lemma Lemma 2. For a + b + c = 0, it follows that 2(a2 + b2 + c2 ) |a| + |b| + |c| Therefore, P 3|a| + 3|b| + 3|c| (|a| + |b| + |c|) 3(3
|a|+|b|+|c| 3

) (|a| + |b| + |c|)

(This step uses AM-GM for 3 postive real numbers) 1

Again, let t =

|a| + |b| + |c| , t 0, we need to nd the minimum value of 3 3 33 t

t

Let f (t) = 3 3 3 t, this implies that f (t) = ln(3) 3 3 1 ln(3) 1 > 0 for all t 0. Therefore, f (t) is increasing on [0, ). Thus, we have f (t) f (0) = 3. In conclusion, the minimum value of P is 3 attained when x = y = z = 0.