Proving Inequalities in Acute Triangle With Difference Substitution
Proving Inequalities in Acute Triangle With Difference Substitution
A BSTRACT. In this paper, we prove several inequalities in the acute triangle by means of so-
called Difference Substitution. As generalization of the method, we also consider an example
that the greatest interior angle is less than or equal to 120◦ in the triangle.
Key words and phrases: Inequalities, Acute Triangle, Difference Substitution, Linear transformation.
1. I NTRODUCTION
In [1, 2], L. Yang suggested the use of Difference Substitution to prove asymmetric polyno-
mial inequalities, as it had been used previously to deal with symmetric ones.
If x1 ≤ x2 ≤ x3 ≤ · · · ≤ xn with n ∈ N ∗ , then we set
x1 = t1 ,
x2 = t1 + t2 ,
(1.1) x3 = t1 + t2 + t3 ,
··················
xn = t1 + t2 + t3 + · · · + tn ,
The authors would like to thank Professor Lu Yang for his enthusiastic help.
253-06
2 Y.-D. W U , Z H .-H. Z HANG , AND Y.-R. Z HANG
where v ≥ 0, w ≥ 0.
Analogously, if y ≤ x ≤ z, then its “splitting” transformation is
y = u,
(1.3) x = u + v,
z = u + v + w,
where v ≥ 0, w ≥ 0.
Sequentially, for y ≤ z ≤ x or z ≤ x ≤ y or z ≤ y ≤ x or x ≤ z ≤ y, we set four similar
linear transformations.
For a 3-variant polynomial F (x, y, z), by using the six linear transformations above, we
obtain 6 members Pi (u, v, w) with 1 ≤ i ≤ 6, and call the set {P1 , P2 , . . . , P6 } the Difference
Substitution of F (x, y, z) and denote this by DS(F ). If all the coefficients of these members
DS(F ) are nonnegative, then F ≥ 0 whenever x, y, z all are nonnegative. In other words,
F is positive semi-definite on R3+ . Difference substitution is a very valid method for proving
inequalities. For more information on Difference Substitution, please refer to [3] and [4].
In this paper, by using Difference Substitution, the authors prove several inequalities in acute
triangles.
Throughout the paper we denote A, B, C as the interior angles, a, b, c as the side-lengths,
S as the area, s as the semi-perimeter, R as the circumradius, r as the inradius, ha , hb , hc as
the altitudes, ma , mb , mc as the medians, and ra , rb , rc as the radii of the described circles of
triangle
P ABC respectively. Moreover, P we will customarily use the cyclic sum symbol, that is:
f (a) = f (a) + f (b) + f (c), and f (a, b) = f (a, b) + f (b, c) + f (c, a), etc.
Let us begin with the well-known Walker’s inequality [5]. In the acute triangle, show that
(1.4) s2 ≥ 2R2 + 8Rr + 3r2 ,
or
(1.5) − 2 a3 b3 + a4 b2 − a4 bc + a5 b + ab5 + b5 c + b4 c2
− 2 b 3 c 3 + b 2 c 4 − 2 c 3 a3 + c 4 a2 + c 5 a + c 5 b + c 2 a4
+ a5 c − ab4 c + a2 b4 − b6 − c6 − a6 − abc4 ≥ 0.
Let
b+c−a
x= 2
> 0,
c+a−b
(1.6) y= 2
> 0,
z = a+b−c
2
> 0.
J. Inequal. Pure and Appl. Math., 8(3) (2007), Art. 81, 10 pp. http://jipam.vu.edu.au/
P ROVING I NEQUALITIES IN ACUTE T RIANGLE WITH D IFFERENCE S UBSTITUTION 3
+ 8 v 3 + 20 vw2 + 12 v 2 w + 8 w3 u + 4 v 4 + 8 v 3 w + 2 w4
+ 34 v 3 w3 + 19 v 2 w4 + 2 vw5 + 17 v 4 w2 .
Obviously F (x, y, z) = P (u, v, w) ≥ 0 from (1.8) and u > 0, v ≥ 0, w ≥ 0, i.e., inequality
(1.4) or (1.5) is true.
Now, let us consider another semi-symmetric inequality [6] in the acute triangle
ha
(1.10) cos(B − C) ≤ .
ma
It is equivalent to
−a4 + 3 b2 + 3 c2 a2 − 2 (b − c)2 (b + c)2 ≥ 0,
(1.11)
and from (1.6), this equals
(1.12) F (x, y, z) = −y 2 − z 2 + 14 yz x2 − (y + z) z 2 − 14 yz + y 2 x + yz (y + z)2 ≥ 0.
(1.14) P2 (u, v, w)
= 2 u2 − v 2 − vw 20 u2 + (24 w + 52 v) u + 53 v 2 + 6 w2 + 52 vw
and
(1.15) P3 (u, v, w)
= 2 u2 − v 2 − vw 20 u2 + (52 v + 28 w) u + 53 v 2 + 54 vw + 7 w2
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4 Y.-D. W U , Z H .-H. Z HANG , AND Y.-R. Z HANG
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P ROVING I NEQUALITIES IN ACUTE T RIANGLE WITH D IFFERENCE S UBSTITUTION 5
J. Inequal. Pure and Appl. Math., 8(3) (2007), Art. 81, 10 pp. http://jipam.vu.edu.au/
6 Y.-D. W U , Z H .-H. Z HANG , AND Y.-R. Z HANG
This implies F (x, y, z) = P (u, v, w) ≥ 0 from (1.8). Hence, inequality (2.1) holds. The proof
is completed.
A m2 m2
(2.6) sin4 ≤ b 4c .
2 16ma
By using the formula cos α = 1 − 2 sin2 α2 , the law of cosines and the formulas of the medians,
we find that (2.6) is simply the following inequality
(2.7) − a8 − 4 b8 + 6 a6 c2 − 34 b2 c6 + 20 b3 a4 c + 12 a2 c6 − 32 b5 a2 c − 32 c5 a2 b
− 34 b6 c2 − 51 b4 c4 − 4 c8 − 4 a6 bc + 20 c3 a4 b − 26 a4 b2 c2 + 54 a2 b4 c2
+ 54 a2 b2 c4 − 13 a4 b4 − 13 a4 c4 + 12 a2 b6 + 6 a6 b2 + 16 b7 c + 16 c7 b
− 64 b3 c3 a2 + 48 b5 c3 + 48 b3 c5 ≥ 0.
It it easy to see that inequality (2.8) is symmetric for y, z. Therefore, we only need to prove that
inequality (2.8) holds when x ≤ y ≤ z, y ≤ x ≤ z and y ≤ z ≤ x.
Calculating DS(F ), it consists of 3 polynomials with u > 0, v ≥ 0, w ≥ 0 as follows
(2.9) P1 (u, v, w)
=(2u2 − v 2 − vw)[(192 w2 + 768 v 2 + 768 vw)u4
+ (256 w3 + 2112 vw2 + 4800 v 2 w + 3200 v 3 )u3
+ (5808 v 4 + 80 w4 + 7376 v 2 w2 + 11616 v 3 w + 1568 vw3 )u2
+ (6336 v 5 + 15840 v 4 w + 13440 v 3 w2 + 16 w5 + 4320 v 2 w3 + 416 vw4 )u
+ 5112 v 6 + 15336 v 5 w + 48 vw5 + 16560 v 4 w2 + 7560 v 3 w3 + 1272 v 2 w4 ]
+ (7344 v 7 + 432 w5 v 2 + 25704 v 6 w + 33912 v 5 w2 + 20520 v 4 w3
+ 5400 v 3 w4 )u + 20772 v 7 w + 5193 v 8 + 36 w6 v 2
+ 1332 w5 v 3 + 32418 v 6 w2 + 24552 v 5 w3 + 9009 v 4 w4
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P ROVING I NEQUALITIES IN ACUTE T RIANGLE WITH D IFFERENCE S UBSTITUTION 7
for x ≤ y ≤ z,
(2.10) P2 (u, v, w) =(2u2 − v 2 − vw)[(−384 vw + 192 v 2 + 192 w2 )u4
+ (−192 vw2 + 896 v 3 − 960 v 2 w + 256 w3 )u3
+ (−976 v 2 w2 + 1776 v 4 + 80 w4 + 224 vw3 − 288 v 3 w)u2
+ (2032 v 5 − 480 v 3 w2 + 16 w5 + 1328 v 4 w + 128 v 2 w3 + 240 vw4 )u
+ 1640 v 6 + 2128 v 5 w + 544 v 4 w2 + 328 v 3 w3 + 416 v 2 w4 + 80 vw5 ]
+ (2064 v 5 w2 + 32 w6 v + 4176 v 6 w + 776 v 4 w3 + 2320 v 7
+ 416 v 2 w5 + 968 v 3 w4 )u + 1640 v 8 + 2708 w2 v 6 + 817 w4 v 4
+ 524 w5 v 3 + 956 w3 v 5 + 84 w6 v 2 + 3768 wv 7
for y ≤ x ≤ z, and
(2.11) P3 (u, v, w) =384 u6 v 2 + 11072 w2 u2 v 4 + 20992 w2 u3 v 3 + 19552 w2 u4 v 2
+ 8832 w2 u5 v + 2008 w4 uv 3 + 5296 w4 u2 v 2 + 5376 w4 u3 v
+ 36 w2 v 6 + 1536 w2 u6 + 2792 w3 uv 4 + 10400 w3 u2 v 3
+ 15744 w3 u3 v 2 + 10816 w3 u4 v + 2368 w2 uv 5 + 840 w5 uv 2
+ 1344 w5 u2 v + 2816 w3 u5 + 132 w3 v 5 + 1888 w4 u4 + 193 w4 v 4
+ 184 w6 uv + 144 w5 v 3 + 640 w5 u3 + 1200 wuv 6 + 13120 wu3 v 4
+ 6256 wu2 v 5 + 13824 wu4 v 3 + 58 w6 v 2 + 128 w6 u2 + 7296 wu5 v 2
+ 3360 u4 v 4 + 1792 u5 v 3 + 288 uv 7 + 1504 u2 v 6 + 3168 u3 v 5
+ 1536 wu6 v + 12 w7 v + w8 + 16 w7 u
for y ≤ z ≤ x.
It is not difficult to see that P1 (u, v, w) ≥ 0 and P3 (u, v, w) ≥ 0 because u > 0, v ≥ 0, w ≥ 0
and 2u2 − v 2 − vw > 0.
In order to prove P2 (u, v, w) ≥ 0, we only need prove the following inequality
(2.12) p(u, v, w) =(−384 vw + 192 v 2 + 192 w2 )u4
+ (−192 vw2 + 896 v 3 − 960 v 2 w + 256 w3 )u3
+ (−976 v 2 w2 + 1776 v 4 + 80 w4 + 224 vw3 − 288 v 3 w)u2
+ (2032 v 5 − 480 v 3 w2 + 16 w5 + 1328 v 4 w + 128 v 2 w3 + 240 vw4 )u
+ 1640 v 6 + 2128 v 5 w + 544 v 4 w2 + 328 v 3 w3 + 416 v 2 w4 + 80 vw5
≥0,
where u > 0, v ≥ 0 and w ≥ 0.
(i) For u > 0, v ≥ w ≥ 0, taking v = w + t with t ≥ 0, then we have
p(u, v, w) =192 t2 u4 + (576 tw2 + 1728 t2 w + 896 t3 )u3 + (816 w4 + 4512 w3 t
+ 8816 w2 t2 + 6816 wt3 + 1776 t4 )u2 + (2032 t5 + 11488 wt4
+ 3264 w5 + 14528 w4 t + 26976 w3 t2 + 25152 w2 t3 )u + 50544 w4 t2
+ 56584 w3 t3 + 5136 w6 + 24552 w5 t + 1640 t6 + 35784 w2 t4 + 11968 wt5 .
It obviously follows that p(u, v, w) ≥ 0, i.e., inequality (2.12) holds.
J. Inequal. Pure and Appl. Math., 8(3) (2007), Art. 81, 10 pp. http://jipam.vu.edu.au/
8 Y.-D. W U , Z H .-H. Z HANG , AND Y.-R. Z HANG
2.4. Remarks.
Remark 2.1. By the same argument as above, we also prove the following inequalities conjec-
tures [9, 10, 11] in the acute triangle
X X
(2.15) m2a h2a ≥ m2a ra2 ,
X X A
(2.16) sin8 A ≥ cos8 ,
2
X X a 2
2
(2.17) (b − c) ≥ (rb − rc )2 ,
b+c
and
X
(2.18) (hb + hc − ha )3 ≥ 3ma mb mc .
Remark 2.2. The operations in this paper were performed using mathematical software Maple
9.0.
J. Inequal. Pure and Appl. Math., 8(3) (2007), Art. 81, 10 pp. http://jipam.vu.edu.au/
P ROVING I NEQUALITIES IN ACUTE T RIANGLE WITH D IFFERENCE S UBSTITUTION 9
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