Could someone prove these for me:
Given any three real numbers, there exists a pair of two of these numbers such that their product is non-negative.
Given 5 points on a plane, it is impossible to join every point to every other point without two lines intersecting.
Given a function of the form , the minimum is obtained when , where
I had proved the last one, but when , the result becomes minimum. Could someone explain how this happens?
Easy Math Editor
This discussion board is a place to discuss our Daily Challenges and the math and science related to those challenges. Explanations are more than just a solution — they should explain the steps and thinking strategies that you used to obtain the solution. Comments should further the discussion of math and science.
When posting on Brilliant:
*italics*
or_italics_
**bold**
or__bold__
paragraph 1
paragraph 2
[example link](https://brilliant.org)
> This is a quote
\(
...\)
or\[
...\]
to ensure proper formatting.2 \times 3
2^{34}
a_{i-1}
\frac{2}{3}
\sqrt{2}
\sum_{i=1}^3
\sin \theta
\boxed{123}
Comments
I believe for 2 you have the condition no 3 points are colinear. and also,you can generalize the statement to "two paths intersecting", instead of lines.
The first one is false. Counter-example: -1,0,1. And number 3 is false. Counter-example: a=b=0 results in the function x^2, which has no maximum. As for number 2, I know nothing.
Log in to reply
I changed the third one, but the first one is correct.
In your example, 0,1 have a non-negative product.