Let and be positive numbers such that . Find the infimum of the expression below.
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Claim: The minimum value of the expression 'approaches' 1 min ( 1 + x 1 + 1 + y 1 + 1 + z 1 + 1 + t 1 ) → 1 Proof: The condition x y z t = 1 motivates us to make the substitution x = b a , y = c b , z = d c , t = a d So the above expression changes to 1 + x 1 + 1 + y 1 + 1 + z 1 + 1 + t 1 = b + a b + c + b c + d + c d + a + d a Let ( a , b , c , d ) = ( k , k , 1 , k 1 ) , then when k becomes very large, b + a b + c + b c + d + c d + a + d a = k → ∞ lim ( k + k k + 1 + k 1 + k + 1 1 + k 2 + 1 k 2 ) = 1 So it suffices to show that, for all positive reals b + a b + c + b c + d + c d + a + d a ≥ 1 Applying Titu's Lemma/Cauchy-Schwarz inequality , c y c ∑ b + a b = c y c ∑ b 2 + a b b 2 ≥ a 2 + b 2 + c 2 + d 2 + a b + b c + c d + d a ( a + b + c + d ) 2 ≥ 1 Hence, we have shown that the expression never takes values less than 1 . Therefore, inf ( b + a b + c + b c + d + c d + a + d a ) = inf ( 1 + x 1 + 1 + y 1 + 1 + z 1 + 1 + t 1 ) = 1