A variation of an

inequality from the IMO www.calimath.org updated on March 6, 2023

Problem. Show that the inequality

n X
X n n X
X n
|xi − xj | ≤ |xi + xj |
i=1 j=1 i=1 j=1

holds for all real numbers x1 , . . . , xn .

After trying to solve the problem on your own, you can find a possible solution on the next page.

1 solution by Richard
A variation of an
inequality from the IMO www.calimath.org updated on March 6, 2023

Problem. Show that the inequality

n X
X n n X
X n
|xi − xj | ≤ |xi + xj |
i=1 j=1 i=1 j=1

holds for all real numbers x1 , . . . , xn .

Proof. We will prove the statement by induction on n.

We also make use of the signum-function, which we define as
(
x/|x| for x ̸= 0,
sgn(x) =
0 for x = 0.

For n = 0, the inequality is clear. Now, let n ≥ 1 and assume that the inequality always holds
for n − 1. Note that

|x + y| − |x − y| = 2 min{|x|, |y|} · sgn(x) · sgn(y),

which we go into detail on in remark 1. Therefore, we get

X X
|xi + xj | − |xi − xj |
1≤i,j≤n 1≤i,j≤n
X
= (|xi + xj | − |xi − xj |)
1≤i,j≤n
X
=2 (min{|xi |, |xj |} · sgn(xi ) · sgn(xj ))
1≤i,j≤n
 
  2 
 X X 
=2  ((min{|xi |, |xj |} − α) · sgn(xi ) · sgn(xj )) + α  sgn(xi ) 
 
 
1≤i,j≤n 1≤i≤n 
| {z }
≥0
X
≥2 ((min{|xi |, |xj |} − α) · sgn(xi ) · sgn(xj )) ∀α ≥ 0.
1≤i,j≤n

Motivation for this bound and the following substitution is provided in remark 2. WLOG, let
|xn | = min{|x1 |, |x2 |, . . . , |xn |}. Note that |xi | − |xn | = | xi − sgn(xi )|xn | |. Thus, choosing
| {z }
=:x′i
α = |xn | yields
X X
|xi + xj | − |xi − xj |
1≤i,j≤n 1≤i,j≤n
X
≥2 ((min{|xi |, |xj |} − |xn |) · sgn(xi ) · sgn(xj ))
1≤i,j≤n
X
=2 ((min{|xi | − |xn |, |xj | − |xn |}) · sgn(xi ) · sgn(xj ))
1≤i,j≤n
X
=2 (min{|x′i |, |x′j |} · sgn(xi ) · sgn(xj ))
1≤i,j≤n
(i) X
=2 (min{|x′i |, |x′j |} · sgn(x′i ) · sgn(x′j ))
1≤i,j≤n
(ii) X
=2 (min{|x′i |, |x′j |} · sgn(x′i ) · sgn(x′j ))
1≤i,j≤n−1
X X (iii)
= |x′i + x′j | − |x′i − x′j | ≥ 0.
1≤i,j≤n−1 1≤i,j≤n−1

2 solution by Richard
A variation of an
inequality from the IMO www.calimath.org updated on March 6, 2023

Equality (i) is clear for |xi | > |xn |( =⇒ sgn(x′i ) = sgn(xi )) and can also be checked to be true
for |xi | = |xn |( =⇒ |x′i | = 0). Equality (ii) follows from |x′n | = 0. Inequality (iii) follows from
the inductive assumption. q.e.d.
Remark 1. Some motivation and the proof for the initial identity: It is well-known that |x +
y| − |x − y| = x + y − |x − y| = 2 min{x, y} ∀x, y ∈ R≥0 , which can be proven by checking the
cases x ≥ y, x < y. Therefore, we can try a similar strategy for the general case to obtain

2y
 for x ≥ −y, x ≥ y( ⇐⇒ x ≥ |y|)

2x for x ≥ −y, x ≤ y( ⇐⇒ y ≥ |x|)
|x + y| − |x − y| =
−2y for x ≤ −y, x ≤ y( ⇐⇒ x ≤ −|y|)


−2x for x ≤ −y, x ≥ y( ⇐⇒ y ≤ −|x|)


= 2 min{|x|, |y|} · sgn(x) · sgn(y).

Remark 2. Some motivation for the shifting of variables: After rearranging the desired inequal-
ity such that all the summands are on one side and plugging in the identity for |x + y| − |x − y|,
we notice that the sum
X
(min{|xi |, |xj |} · sgn(xi ) · sgn(xj )) (1)
1≤i,j≤n

looks similar to
 2
X X
(sgn(xi ) · sgn(xj )) =  sgn(xi ) . (2)
1≤i,j≤n 1≤i≤n

Of course, we know that eq. (2) is bounded from below by 0, but annoyingly, we have the weights
min{|xi |, |xj |} in front of the summands in our sum. But we still attempt to make use of this
insight. The following way seems most promising: It is enough to show that eq. (1)−α·eq. (2) ≥ 0
for some choice of α ≥ 0 that we have yet to make. Because min{|xi |, |xj |} is always non-negative
and many of those terms are equal, we can choose α ≥ 0 such that many weight vanish to 0 and
the others remain non-negative, namely α = min{min{|xi |, |xj |} : 1 ≤ i, j ≤ n} = min{|xi | : 1 ≤
i ≤ n} = |xn |. Constructing (x′i )i=1,...,n from (xi )i=1,...,n and α is the last step for the inductive
proof.

Remark 3. This problem is similar to IMO 2021/2. This solution1 to IMO 2021/2 also works
for this problem.

1 https://calimath.org/pdf/IMO2021-2.pdf

3 solution by Richard