Exercise 1326Algebra › InequalitiesOlympiadAdded 5 Nov 2026
Muirhead's idea with weighted AM-GM
#Muirhead#majorization#weighted AM-GM
Statement
Let . Prove that
Hint
Write and use weighted AM-GM.
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Solution
Idea. The exponent vector majorises : each term is a weighted geometric mean of .
Weighted AM-GM. With weights ,
The same holds for and .
Summation.
Equality iff .
Remark. Muirhead's theorem says that whenever majorises . Each instance can be proved exactly as above.
Lesson. An inequality between symmetric sums of monomials of the same degree is an application of weighted AM-GM: find the weights that turn the smaller monomial into a geometric mean of the larger ones.