TEXTS AND READINGS

IN MATHEMATICS 49
Inequalities
An Approach Through Problems
Texts and Readings in Mathematics

Advisory Editor
C. S. Seshadri, Chennai Mathematical Institute, Chennai.

Managing Editor
Rajendra Bhatia, Indian Statistical Institute, New De1hi.

Editors
R. B. Bapat, Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi.
V. S. Borkar, Tata Inst. of Fundamental Research, Mumbai.
Prob al Chaudhuri, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.
V. S. Sunder, Inst. of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai.
M. Vanninathan, TIFR Centre, Bangalore.
 Inequalities
An Approach Through Problems

B JVenkatachala
Indian Institute of Science
Banglore.

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Preface
The International Mathematical Olympiad(IMO), which started as a simple
contest among seven communist block countries in Europe in 1959, has now
encompassed the whole world. With nearly 100 countries participating in this
mega event, this has acquired a true international character. Mathematical
olympiad has effused new enthusiasm in the last few generations of young stu-
dents and really talented young minds have started getting attracted to the rare
beauty of mathematics. Along with it, new ideas have emerged and many intri-
cate problems woven around these ideas have naturally been discovered. This
has enriched basic mathematics, strengthened the foundations of elementary
mathematics and has posed challenging problems to the younger generation.
In turn, high school mathematics has undergone a profound change.
Even though the concept of inequalities is old, the mathematical olympiad
movement has generated new problems based on these inequalities and newer
applications of these old inequalities. There are classical inequalities like the
Arithmetic mean-Geometric mean inequality and the Cauchy-Schwarz inequal-
ity wh ich are very old and which have innumerable applications. The main
purpose of this book is to give a comprehensive presentation of inequalities
and their use in mathematical olympiad problems. This book is also intended
for those students who would like to participate in mathematical olympiad.
Hopefully, this will fill a little vacuum that exists in the world of books. I
have not touched on integral inequalities; they are not apart of olympiad
mathematics.
The book is divided into six chapters. The first chapter describes all the
classical inequalities which are useful for students who are interested in mathe-
matical olympiad and similar contests. I have tried to avoid too much of theory;
many results are taken for granted whenever a need for so me advanced math-
ematics is required(especially results from calculus). Rather, I have put more
emphasis on problems. The second chapter gives many useful techniques for
deriving more inequalities. Here again the stress is on the application of differ-
ent methods to problems. An important class of inequalities, called geometrie
inequalities, is based on geometrie structures, like, triangles and quadrilaterals.
Some important geometrie inequalities are derived in the third chapter. In
the fourth chapter, the problems(mainly taken from olympiad contests) whose
solution(s) involve application of inequalities are discussed. The fifth chapter
is simply a large collection of problems from various contests around the world
and some problems are also taken from several problem journals. The reader
is advised to try these problems on his own before looking into their possible
solutions, wh ich are discussed in the sixth chapter.
As I said earlier, the problems have been taken from various sourees. I have
tried to give reference to them where ever possible and whenever I had one.
vi

I deeply regret and apologise for any inadvertent omission in mentioning the
source.
This whole exercise of writing a book on inequalities is the out co me of my
discussion with the bright students who have attended training camps and
with my colleagues from the training camp. I am really grateful to all of
them. Special thanks go to my colleagues, Prof. C.R.Pranesachar, from the
Mathematical Olympiad cell and Prof. R.B.Bapat from the Indian Statistical
Institute, New Delhi, for their encouragement. I also wish to acknowledge the
support given by Prof. Arvindkumar, Director of the Homi Bhabha Centre
for Science Education(TIFR), Mumbai. I would like to thank the referees für
giving their valuable comments and invaluable tips to improve the quality of
the material in this book.
Finally, the moral support I got from my family throughout this work is
something I never forget.
My thanks are also due to the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Educa-
tion(TIFR), Mumbai/the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai,
my parent institutions.
I also acknowlerlge the support of: the National Board for Higher Math-
ematics, Department of Atomic Energy; Department of Mathematics, Indian
Institute of Science, Bangalore.
B J Venkatachala,
MO Cell, HBCSE(TIFR),
Department of Mathematics,
Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore-560012, INDIA.
 Table of Contents

Preface ...................................................................................................... v
1 Some basic inequalities ............................ .......... 1

1.1 Introduetion . 1
1.2 Arithmetie mean-Geometrie mean inequality . 2
1.3 Cauehy-Sehwarz inequality 11
1.4 Chebyshev's inequality 17
1.5 Rearrangement inequality . 21
1.6 Hölder's and Minkowski's inequalities 27
1.7 Convex and Coneave funetions, Jensen's inequality 34
1.8 Inequalities for symmetrie funetions 47

2 Techniques for proving inequalities ......... ............. 51

2.1 Introduetion . . 51
2.2 Use of induetion . 51
2.3 Applieation of known inequalities . 54
2.4 Use of ealculus in inequalities . 65
2.5 Trigonometrie substitutions . . 73
2.6 Properties of quadratie polynomials 75
2.7 A useful transformation . 78
2.8 Sehur's inequality . . . 80
2.9 Majorisation teehnique 82
2.10 Muirhead's theorem. 84
2.11 Homogenisation . 86
2.12 Normalisation .. 89
2.13 Stolarsky's theorem 91
3 Geometrie inequalities ...................................... 94

3.1 Introduetion. 94
3.2 Notations .. 94
3.3 Some identities involving elements of a triangle 96
3.4 Some geometrie inequalities . . . . . . . 98
3.5 T wo triangles one inseribed in the other . 124
3.6 Let P be a point. .. . ......... . ]30

4 Applieations involving inequalities ...................... 155

5 Problems on inequalities .................................. 187

6 Solutions to problems ...................................... 219