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SELECTION and TRAINING SESSION

Belarus counting and probability

Problem

We have sheets of paper, with the number written on each of them. We perform the following operation. In every step we choose two distinct sheets: if the numbers on the two sheets are and , then we erase these numbers and write the number on both sheets.

Prove that after steps, the sum of the numbers on all the sheets is at least .
Solution
1. See IMO-2014 Shortlist, Problem C2.

Techniques

Invariants / monovariantsQM-AM-GM-HM / Power Mean