Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /143 of 841

Algebra Difficulty 4.9 AIME Find the answer

Suppose that x,yx, y, and zz are non-negative real numbers such that x+y+z=1x+y+z=1. What is the maximum possible value of x+y2+z3x+y^{2}+z^{3} ?

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

Since 0y,z10 \leq y, z \leq 1, we have y2yy^{2} \leq y and z3zz^{3} \leq z. Therefore x+y2+z3x+y+z=1x+y^{2}+z^{3} \leq x+y+z=1. We can get x+y2+z3=1x+y^{2}+z^{3}=1 by setting (x,y,z)=(1,0,0)(x, y, z)=(1,0,0).

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: Omni-MATH, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.