Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2018/ii/paper-2/2f/b/solution

For part (a), fix and consider the line segment
The convex set contains this entire segment. For
we have and
If , 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 set
It contains , and maximality of makes every coordinate product at most one. Hence
If is another maximizer, its coordinates are positive and . The arithmetic-geometric mean inequality gives
while 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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