Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2018/ii/paper-2/2f/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 ii Paper 2 2F b Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
For part (a), fix and consider the line segmentThe convex set contains this entire segment. Forwe have andIf , then for all sufficiently small positive , contradicting the hypothesis on . Thus
For part (b), is compact, and the product of the coordinates is a continuous function. The extreme value theorem therefore supplies maximizing that product. Assume every and apply part (a) to the convex setIt contains , and maximality of makes every coordinate product at most one. HenceIf is another maximizer, its coordinates are positive and . The arithmetic-geometric mean inequality giveswhile the displayed inequality gives the reverse bound. Equality in the arithmetic-geometric mean inequality forces every . Therefore the maximizer is unique.
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