Prove $(a_1+b_1)^{1/n}\cdots(a_n+b_n)^{1/n}\ge \left(a_1\cdots a_n\right)^{1/n}+\left(b_1\cdots b_n\right)^{1/n}$

Solution 1:

Apply the AM-GM inequality to the sequence $a_k/(a_k+b_k)$ and then to the sequence $b_k/(a_k+b_k)$. Add the resulting two inequalities, and multiply through by $\left(\prod_k (a_k+b_k)\right)^{1/n}$ to get the result.

This is exercise 2.11 (page 34) of J. Michael Steele's The Cauchy-Schwarz Master Class, and the result is there credited to Minkowski. This inequality is sometimes called the "superadditivity of the geometric mean".

Solution 2:

By Holder $$\prod_{i=1}^n(a_i+b_i)\geq\left(\sqrt[n]{\prod_{i=1}^na_i}+\sqrt[n]{\prod_{i=1}^nb_i}\right)^n$$ and we are done!

Solution 3:

The inequality does not hold.

Set $n=1$: the inequality reads $$a + b \geq a b.$$ With $a=2$ and $b=4$ the inequality is violated.

Why did you think the inequality does hold?