Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 4 / 222 of 340 #482 of 1964

Problem 482

AMC 12 late, AIME early
Algebra Difficulty 4.8 Multiple choice

Given positive numbers a,b,ca, b, c satisfy ab+bc+ca=1995a b+b c+c a=1995. Then the minimum value of abc+bca+cab\frac{a b}{c}+\frac{b c}{a}+\frac{c a}{b} is:

Pick one

Next problem →

Official solution

5. (B).
 Given a2+b2+c2ab+bc+ca=1995, we have a2b2c2+c2a2b2+b2c2a2abccab+cabbca+bcaabc=a2+b2+c21995. Also, (abc+cab+bca)2=a2b2c2+c2a2b2+b2c2a2+2a2+2b2+2c23×1995. \begin{array}{l} \text { Given } a^{2}+b^{2}+c^{2} \geqslant a b+b c+c a=1995, \text { we have } \\ \frac{a^{2} b^{2}}{c^{2}}+\frac{c^{2} a^{2}}{b^{2}}+\frac{b^{2} c^{2}}{a^{2}} \\ \geqslant \frac{a b}{c} \cdot \frac{c a}{b}+\frac{c a}{b} \cdot \frac{b c}{a}+\frac{b c}{a} \cdot \frac{a b}{c} \\ =a^{2}+b^{2}+c^{2} \geqslant 1995 . \\ \text { Also, }\left(\frac{a b}{c}+\frac{c a}{b}+\frac{b c}{a}\right)^{2} \\ =\frac{a^{2} b^{2}}{c^{2}}+\frac{c^{2} a^{2}}{b^{2}}+\frac{b^{2} c^{2}}{a^{2}}+2 a^{2}+2 b^{2}+2 c^{2} \\ \geqslant 3 \times 1995 . \end{array}

Thus, abc+cab+bca3665\frac{a b}{c}+\frac{c a}{b}+\frac{b c}{a} \geqslant 3 \sqrt{665}.
That is, the minimum value of abc+acb+bca\frac{a b}{c}+\frac{a c}{b}+\frac{b c}{a} is 36653 \sqrt{665}.

Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty, ordering) added by this project.