Problem 11770. [AMM, April 2014]. Proposed by S. Andriopoulos, Eleia, Greece.

Prove, for real numbers a, b, x, y with a > b > 1 and x > y > 1, that
(x+y)/2
ax − b y
  
a+b a+b
> log .
x−y 2 2

a+b a−b x+y

Solution by Borislav Karaivanov, Lexington, SC. In terms of c = 2
,d= 2
, t= 2
,
and h = x−y
2
, the given inequality becomes

(c + d)t+h − (c − d)t−h
> ct log c
2h
for c − 1 > d > 0 and t − 1 > h > 0. Since (c + d)t+h − (c − d)t−h > ct+h − ct−h when c >
d > 0 and t > h > 0, it suffices to show the stronger inequality ct+h − ct−h ≥ 2hct log c,
or equivalently

ch − c−h ≥ 2h log c. (1)

√
Let f (h) = ch −c−h −2h log c. Then f 0 (h) = (ch +c−h −2) log c ≥ (2 ch c−h −2) log c = 0,
where we used the AM-GM inequality and took into account that c > 1. Hence, f is
increasing. Therefore, f (h) ≥ f (0) = 0 for every h > 0 which essentially is (1).