Mathematical Sensation

Hoang Quoc Viet

Department of Mathematics University of Auckland

July 5, 2011
Abstract Here is the collection of all mathematical problems around the world (especially at National Maths Olympiad at several countries). Hence, I would deeply appreciate the contribution of those who made these problems available on the website Mathlinks.ro. This article is dedicated to my family, with their great and tremendous support.

Problems
1 1 1 + + < 1. Show that x y z + 2z <3 z2 + 1

Problem 1. Let x, y, z > 0 such that 2x + x2 + 1 2y y2

+1

(Singapore MO 2011 open round 2 Q3) Problem 2. Find all real numbers r such that the inequality r(ab + bc + ca) + (3 r) holds for all positive real numbers a, b, c. (Puerto Rico Math Olympiad 2010) Problem 3. Let a, b and c be positive real numbers such that a + b + c = 1. Prove that a b c 8 + + 1+ a 3 + b 2 c + c2 b b 3 + c2 a + a 2 c c3 + a 2 b + b 2 a 27abc (International Matematical ARHIMEDE contest 5th Edition) 1 1 1 + + a b c 9

Problem 4. Given x1 , x2 , . . . , xn > 0 , n 5. Show that x1 x2 x2 x3 xn x1 n1 + 2 + + 2 x2 + x2 + 2x3 x4 x2 + x2 + 2x4 x5 xn + x2 + 2x2 x3 2 1 2 3 1 (Singapore MO 2011 senior round 2 Q5) Problem 5. Let a, b be real numbers. Prove that 1 1 1 + ab + 1 + a + a2 1 + b + b2 1 + ab + a2 b2 Problem 6. Let ABC be a triangle, and let P be a point in the interior of the triangle such that P AC = P BC. And let E and F be the projections of P into [AC] and [BC] , and let I be the midpoint of segment [AB]. Show that IE = IF . Problem 7. Let x, y, z be real numbers in the interval [1, 4] satisfying x y and x z. Find the minimum of the following expression P = y z x + + 2x + 3y y+z z+x

(A Category Vietnamese University Entrance exam)

Solution

Solution 1. We would somehow predict the minimum value occurs if and only if (x, y, z) = (4, 1, 2) (well, calculator is the only thing we can use to verify this since there is a nite number of integer triplets (x, y, z)). It suces to show that x y z 34 + + 2x + 3y y + z z+x 33 for all x, y, z satisfying the above given conditions. We use the method of substitution to tackle this problem. Let x a= ; y Hence, we have a, b [1, 4] and the above experssion become P = a b 1 + + 2a + 3 a + b 1 + b b= x z

We need to show the following lemma

Lemma 1. a b 4 b + + 2a + 3 a + b 11 4 + b for a, b [1, 4]

Proof. We start doing algebraic manipulation on both sides, it is equivalent to b 1 1 a+b 4+b b(4 a) (a + b)(4 + b) a 4 11 3 + 2a 3(4 a) 11(3 + 2a)

Hence, it is enough to check that 11b(3 + 2a) 33b + 22ab 21b + 19ab 3(a + b)(4 + b) 12(a + b) + 3ab + 3b2 12a + 3b2 0 (This is obviously true)

3b(7 b) + a(19b 12) We complete proving the lemma.

Thus, using the lemma above, we only need to check that 1 2 b + b+4 1+b 3 However, this is reduced to (b 2)2 0 which is true. Thus, we have our desired minimum is (4, 1, 2). 34 when (x, y, z) = 33