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:
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{\displaystyle \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 k .
By the inequality of arithmetic and geometric means , we have:
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x
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{\displaystyle \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
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n
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{\displaystyle \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,
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n
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1
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n
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1.
{\displaystyle \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.
