Conceptual question about trichotomy of real numbers

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I was thinking that it is possible to answer this Math.SE question here using the trichotomy of the real numbers but I got some logic trouble.

The question was. Prove that for all $x,y > 0$ integers is true that $$\sqrt{xy} \leq \frac{x+y}{2}$$

Then I think in this proof.


We can use the Trichotomy of the real numbers . Given the two numbers $\sqrt{xy}, \frac{x+y}{2} \in \mathbb{R}$ and the usual order relation in $\mathbb{R}$, there are just three possibilities: $$\sqrt{xy}> \frac{x+y}{2}\tag{1}$$ $$\sqrt{xy} = \frac{x+y}{2}\tag{2}$$ $$\sqrt{xy}< \frac{x+y}{2}\tag{3}$$

Let $x,y > 0$ be integers. Suppose that for all $x,y$ we have $$\sqrt{xy}>\frac{x+y}{2}$$

then we get that, squaring both sides,

$$xy > \frac{1}{4}(x^2+2xy+y^2) \implies 4xy > x^2+2xy + y^2 \implies 2xy > x^2+y^2$$

This is absurd, if $x = y$ we have $2x^2 > 2x^2$. So we conclude that for general $x,y \geq 0$ we have that

$$\sqrt{xy} \leq \frac{x+y}{2}$$

Question: Does that proves the first question? Seems that it only proves that the relation '$>$' is not possible. But it does not prove that '$\leq$' is true for all $x,y>0$ integers. It could be possible to proof using this method but in other way?

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Your reasoning seems to be wrong, because you want to prove that $$\sqrt(xy) \leq (x+y)/2,$$ for all $x,y$ and you try to do it by supposing that $\sqrt(xy) > (x+y)/2$ for all $x, y$ and get a contradiction.
This is a major logical flaw, because the negation of $$\forall x \Phi(x)$$ is not $\forall x \neg \Phi(x)$ but rather $$\exists x \neg \Phi(x).$$ So in this case, if you insist in following this proof by contradiction, what you need is to get a contradiction from the hypothesis that for some $x_0, y_0$, $$\sqrt(x_0y_0) > (x_0+y_0)/2,$$ which, of course, should not be difficult, but it seems that a direct proof is just as easy and more elegant, in this case...

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I think you just have your order of things interchanged. Your proof as written supposes the hypothesis "for all $x,y$, we have $\sqrt{xy} > (x+y)/2$".

Instead, what you want is, for every $x,y$, to suppose the hypothesis $\sqrt{xy} > (x+y)/2$

More schematically, the incorrect argument has the form

  • Suppose $\forall x,y > 0: \sqrt{xy} > (x+y)/2$
    • ...
    • Therefore, contradiction
  • Conclude $\neg \forall x,y > 0: \sqrt{xy} > (x+y)/2$

The correct argument I think you were trying to make is

  • Let $x,y$ be positive reals
    • Suppose $\sqrt{xy} > (x+y)/2$
      • ...
      • Therefore, contradiction
    • Conclude $\sqrt{xy} \leq (x+y)/2$
  • Conclude $\forall x,y > 0: \sqrt{xy} \leq (x+y)/2$