Proving Inequalities

APPROACHES TO PROVING INEQUALILTIES
The content of advanced calculus and real analysis highly depends on

inequalities. Rather than spending a lot of our time proving elementary
results directly from axioms of real numbers, we move on to methods
of proving inequalities which we need in advanced calculus.
1. Get comfortable using the Triangle Inequality. The triangle
inequality is one of the more frequently used inequalities in advanced
calculus. It involves the absolute value function defined with
!
x
if x 0,
|x| :=
x
if x < 0.
Here is its statement and proof of the Triangle Inequality.
Proposition 1. If a, b R then
|a + b| |a| + |b|.
Proof. We have to distinguish several cases.

Case 1) In this case we assume a, b 0. An immediate consequence
is that a + b 0. By the definition of the absolute value we see that
|a + b| = a + b, |a| = a, |b| = b and the inequality |a + b| |a| + |b|
trivially holds.
Case 2) This is a similar case: we assume a, b < 0 and obtain a+b < 0,
|a + b| = a b, |a| = a, |b| = b. The inequality |a + b| |a| + |b|
again trivially holds.
Case 3) This time we assume that the numbers a and b are of different
sign. Without loss of generality we may assume a < 0 and b > 0. The
assumptions do not determine the sign of a + b and so we have to
distinguish two sub-cases:
Sub-case 1) Here we assume a+b 0. Since a < 0 we in particular
have a a, i.e a + b a + b. We also see that |a + b| = a + b,
|a| = a and |b| = b. Therefore, a+b a+b implies |a+b| |a|+|b|.
Sub-case 2) Here we assume a+b 0. Since b > 0 we have b b,

i.e a b a + b. We also see that |a + b| = a b, |a| = a and
|b| = b. Therefore, a b a + b implies |a + b| |a| + |b|.
!
Examples of utilizing the triangle inequality are given in the following

proposition.
1
Proposition 2. If x, y, z R then
(1) |x
" z| " |x y| + |y z|;
"
"
(2) "|x| |y|" |x y|.
Proof. To prove (1) we set a = x y and b = y "z and use" the" triangle"
"
" "
"
inequality. To prove (2) we first note that, since "|x| |y|" = "|y| |x|"
and |xy| = |y x|, the inequality (2) does not change if we switch the
roles of x and y. Thus, without
loss of
" generality we may assume that
"
"
"
|x| |y| and consequently "|x| |y|" = |x| |y|. It remains to show
that |x||y| |xy|, i.e. |x| |xy|+|y|. The last inequality follows
from the triangle inequality once we set a = x y and b = y.
!
There is an important comment to be made. If r and s are two
real numbers, then we may think of |r s| as the distance between r
and s. Interpreted this way the inequality (1) of Proposition 2 states
that the distance between numbers x and z is not bigger than the
sum of distances from x to y and from y to z. This resembles the
triangle inequality in geometry! This is the reason why the inequality
of Proposition 1 is called triangle inequality.
2. Take advantage of the principle of mathematical induction.
It is possible to introduce the set of natural numbers N as a subset of
R; it is characterized by:
1 N,
k N = k + 1 N.
In particular, to prove statements about N we can use the principle of

mathematical induction. Here is an example; the following is referred
to as the Bernoullis inequality.
Proposition 3. Let x > 1 and let n N. Then
(1 + x)n 1 + nx.
Proof. The base for the induction is the case of n = 1. For this value of
n the inequality reads 1 + x 1 + x and is trivially true. Now assume
that the inequality holds for some k 1, i.e. that
(1)
(1 + x)k 1 + kx.
We need to show that (1+x)k+1 1+(k+1)x. We start by multiplying

both sides of the inequality (1) by (1 + x); note that 1 + x > 0, due to
x > 1, so that the direction of the inequality does not change after
multiplication. We get
(1 + x)k+1 (1 + x)(1 + kx).
Since (1 + x)(1 + kx) = 1 + kx + x + kx2 = 1 + (k + 1)x + kx2 , and

since kx2 0 we have
(1 + x)(1 + kx) 1 + (k + 1)x.
Using transitivity we see that (1 + x)k+1 1 + (k + 1)x.
3. Utilize transitivity. Usefulness of transitivity when proving inequalities can not be overemphasized. The inequality in the following
example can be proven by induction for n 3. If you do this as a
little exercise (recommended!), you will find out that the proof is not
all that simple. On the other hand, to show that the inequality holds
for n large enough we only need a clever usage of transitivity.
Example 1. Show that if n N is large enough then
n3 > (n + 1)2 .
Comments leading to the solution. Let us first clarify the meaning

of the phrase
if n N is large enough.
The phrase should be interpreted to mean from some number on, or

for all numbers n N where N is some natural number. In other
words, our problem really states:
(N )(n N ) n3 > (n + 1)2 .
Our inequality is cubic and so there are no methods of solving which
guarantee a solution. Moreover, the presence of +1 on the right
hand side makes any cancelation virtually impossible. Note though
that 2n n + 1 for all n N, so that 4n2 > (n + 1)2 . IF we could
show n3 > 4n2 then the transitivity would give us n3 > (n + 1)2 , as
desired. Thus, we should focus on n3 > 4n2 , i.e. n > 4.
Actual solution. We will show that if n > 4 then n3 > (n + 1)2 . For
n > 4 we have n3 > 4n2 and 2n n + 1. Taking squares of terms in
the last inequality gives 4n2 (n + 1)2 . The transitivity now shows
that n3 > (n + 1)2 .
!
Symbolically, the phrase for n large enough can be written as
n ( 0. We shall use this notational convention.
Example 2. Show that if n ( 0 then
2n2 + n
1
< .
3
n +1
3
Comments leading to
The inequality we need to
# the solution.
$
show is equivalent to 3 2n2 + n < n3 + 1. Using transitivity we see
that it suffices to show 6n2 + 3n < n3 i.e. 6n + 3 < n2 . This is a
quadratic inequality and in principle it can be solved. However, it is
much easier to interpolate a multiple of n between 6n + 3 and n2 and
take advantage of transitivity. For example, if n 3 then 6n + 3 7n
and our problem reduces to 7n < n2 whose solution is 7 < n.
Solution. We will show that if n > 7 then also
that n > 7 implies n2 > 7n. Since
2n2 +n
n3 +1
< 31 . First note
7n = 6n + n > 6n + 3 = 3(2n + 1),

2
we see that n > 3(2n + 1). In particular, we have n3 > 3(2n2 + n) and
consequently n3 + 1 > 3(2n2 + n). The last inequality can be re-written
2 +n
as 2n
< 13 .
!
n3 +1
Homework.
(1) (a) Use mathematical induction to show that 2n n2 for all
n 4;
(b) Show that if n ( 0 then
n2
< 1;
2n + 1
(c) Show that if n ( 0 then
n2
1
< ;
n
2 +1
3
(2) Show that for n ( 0 the following hold:
(a)
(b)
n
n3 1
12 ;
n4 8n3
n1
7;
(3) Assuming the standard properties of sin and cos functions hold
show that for n ( 0 we have
" sin(2n ) cos(2n ) "
1
"
"
.
"
"
n2
n3
25

Proving Inequalities

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Proving Inequalities

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APPROACHES TO PROVING INEQUALILTIES

The content of advanced calculus and real analysis highly depends on

Proof. We have to distinguish several cases.

Sub-case 2) Here we assume a+b 0. Since b > 0 we have b b,

Examples of utilizing the triangle inequality are given in the following

APPROACHES TO PROVING INEQUALILTIES

In particular, to prove statements about N we can use the principle of

We need to show that (1+x)k+1 1+(k+1)x. We start by multiplying

APPROACHES TO PROVING INEQUALILTIES

Since (1 + x)(1 + kx) = 1 + kx + x + kx2 = 1 + (k + 1)x + kx2 , and

Using transitivity we see that (1 + x)k+1 1 + (k + 1)x.

Comments leading to the solution. Let us first clarify the meaning

The phrase should be interpreted to mean from some number on, or

APPROACHES TO PROVING INEQUALILTIES

< 31 . First note

7n = 6n + n > 6n + 3 = 3(2n + 1),

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