Algebra, Austria MO 2016, Problem 4

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Understand the problem

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version="4.0" text_font="Raleway||||||||" background_color="#f4f4f4" custom_margin="10px||10px" custom_padding="10px|20px|10px|20px" box_shadow_style="preset2"]Let $a,b,c\ge-1$ be real numbers with $a^3+b^3+c^3=1$ .
Prove that $a+b+c+a^2+b^2+c^2\le4$ , and determine the cases of equality.[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version="3.25"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="3.25" custom_padding="|||" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_accordion open_toggle_text_color="#0c71c3" _builder_version="3.22.4" toggle_font="||||||||" body_font="Raleway||||||||" text_orientation="center" custom_margin="10px||10px"][et_pb_accordion_item title="Source of the problem" open="on" _builder_version="4.0"]Austria MO 2016. Final Round, Problem 4[/et_pb_accordion_item][et_pb_accordion_item title="Topic" _builder_version="4.0" open="off"]Inequality[/et_pb_accordion_item][et_pb_accordion_item title="Difficulty Level" _builder_version="3.22.4" open="off"][/et_pb_accordion_item][et_pb_accordion_item title="Suggested Book" _builder_version="4.0" open="off"]Challenges and Thrills of Pre-College Mathematics[/et_pb_accordion_item][/et_pb_accordion][et_pb_text _builder_version="3.27.4" text_font="Raleway|300|||||||" text_text_color="#ffffff" header_font="Raleway|300|||||||" header_text_color="#e2e2e2" background_color="#0c71c3" custom_margin="48px||48px" custom_padding="20px|20px|20px|20px" border_radii="on|5px|5px|5px|5px" box_shadow_style="preset3"]

Start with hints

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[/et_pb_tab][et_pb_tab title="Hint 1" _builder_version="4.0" hover_enabled="0"]The idea is that you have to capture the symmetry in the equations and correspondingly find it.Observe that the inequality $a+b+c+a^2+b^2+c^2\le4$ with the constraint $a^3+b^3+c^3=1$ can be written as $ (a^3 - a ^2 - a +1) + (b^3 - b ^2 - b +1) + (c^3 - c ^2 - c +1) \ge 0 $ using the constraint. [/et_pb_tab][et_pb_tab title="Hint 2" _builder_version="4.0" hover_enabled="0"]Now, $ (a^3 - a ^2 - a +1) + (b^3 - b ^2 - b +1) + (c^3 - c ^2 - c +1) \ge 0 $ demands you to look into the polynomial $P(x)=(x+1)(x-1)^2=x^3-x^2-x+1$ .Thus, the problem reduces to show that if $a,b,c\ge-1$ are real numbers, then $P(a)+P(b)+P(c)\ge0$ . [/et_pb_tab][et_pb_tab title="Hint 3" _builder_version="4.0" hover_enabled="0"]What if we can show that individually if $x\ge-1$ we always have $P(x)\ge0$ ?Then our problem will be solved right?We have $P(x)=(x+1)(x-1)^2=x^3-x^2-x+1$ , observe that it automatically implies that if $ x+1 \geq 0 $ then we will have $ P(x) \geq 0$. [/et_pb_tab][et_pb_tab title="Hint 4" _builder_version="4.0" hover_enabled="0"]Equality Cases:For equality we must have $P(a)=P(b)=P(c)=0$ , and hence $a,b,c\in\{-1,+1\}$ .
Hence equality holds if and only if one of the three variables is $-1$ and the other two are $+1$ .QED [/et_pb_tab][/et_pb_tabs][et_pb_text _builder_version="3.27.4" text_font="Raleway|300|||||||" text_text_color="#ffffff" header_font="Raleway|300|||||||" header_text_color="#e2e2e2" background_color="#0c71c3" custom_margin="48px||48px" custom_padding="20px|20px|20px|20px" border_radii="on|5px|5px|5px|5px" box_shadow_style="preset3"]

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Connected Program at Cheenta

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Math Olympiad is the greatest and most challenging academic contest for school students. Brilliant school students from over 100 countries participate in it every year.Cheenta works with small groups of gifted students through an intense training program. It is a deeply personalized journey toward intellectual prowess and technical sophistication.[/et_pb_blurb][et_pb_button button_url="https://cheenta.com/matholympiad/" url_new_window="on" button_text="Learn More" button_alignment="center" _builder_version="3.23.3" custom_button="on" button_bg_color="#0c71c3" button_border_color="#0c71c3" button_border_radius="0px" button_font="Raleway||||||||" button_icon="%%3%%" background_layout="dark" button_text_shadow_style="preset1" box_shadow_style="preset1" box_shadow_color="#0c71c3"][/et_pb_button][et_pb_text _builder_version="3.27.4" text_font="Raleway|300|||||||" text_text_color="#ffffff" header_font="Raleway|300|||||||" header_text_color="#e2e2e2" background_color="#0c71c3" custom_margin="50px||50px" custom_padding="20px|20px|20px|20px" border_radii="on|5px|5px|5px|5px" box_shadow_style="preset3"]

Similar Problems

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