Papyrus 38

In mathematics, Mahler's inequality, named after Kurt Mahler, states that the geometric mean of the term-by-term sum of two finite sequences of positive numbers is greater than or equal to the sum of their two separate geometric means:

$\prod _{k=1}^{n}(x_{k}+y_{k})^{1/n}\geq \prod _{k=1}^{n}x_{k}^{1/n}+\prod _{k=1}^{n}y_{k}^{1/n}$

when x_k, y_k > 0 for all k.

Proof

By the inequality of arithmetic and geometric means, we have:

$\prod _{k=1}^{n}\left({x_{k} \over x_{k}+y_{k}}\right)^{1/n}\leq {1 \over n}\sum _{k=1}^{n}{x_{k} \over x_{k}+y_{k}},$

and

$\prod _{k=1}^{n}\left({y_{k} \over x_{k}+y_{k}}\right)^{1/n}\leq {1 \over n}\sum _{k=1}^{n}{y_{k} \over x_{k}+y_{k}}.$

Hence,

$\prod _{k=1}^{n}\left({x_{k} \over x_{k}+y_{k}}\right)^{1/n}+\prod _{k=1}^{n}\left({y_{k} \over x_{k}+y_{k}}\right)^{1/n}\leq {1 \over n}n=1.$

Clearing denominators then gives the desired result.

See also

• Minkowski's inequality

References

• http://eom.springer.de/M/m064060.htm