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USA IMO 2003

United States 2003 algebra

Problem

Let be real numbers in the interval . Prove that
Solution
By the Product-to-sum formulas and the Double-angle formulas, we have Hence, we obtain and its analogous forms. Therefore, it suffices to prove that where , , and (hence ). Since the last inequality is symmetric with respect to , we may assume that . It suffices to prove that which is evident as and

Techniques

Symmetric functions