TITLE: Find minimal value of $abc$ if the quadratic equation $ax^2-bx+c = 0$ has two roots in $(0,1)$
QUESTION [9 upvotes]: If $$ ax^2-bx+c = 0 $$ has two distinct real roots in (0,1) where a, b, c are natural numbers then find the minimum value of product abc ?

REPLY [13 votes]: Since $a,b,c $ are positive the roots are trivially greater than 0.
What remains is to solve the inequality:
$\frac{b + \sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a} <1$ 
This reduces to $ a+c>b$ 
But the roots being real and distinct we have $b^2 >4ac$
Combining both we have :
$a^2 + c^2 + 2ac > b^2 > 4ac$
$b^2 > 4ac$ tells us $b> 2$ (why?)
$ a^2 + c^2+ 2ac > 4ac $ tells us $a \neq  c$
Checking small cases we get $(a,b,c) =(5,5,1)$ where $abc =25$
EDIT:
Checking "small" cases is not informative, so adding an explanation:
Keeping in mind $a+c>b$, the minimum value of $ac$ occurs when $a=b$ and $c=1$. So for given $b$, the minim of $abc$ is $b^2$. The smallest value of $b$ which agrees the inequality $b^2>4b$ is 5 (as $ac=b$). Hence the corresponding minimum value is $5^2$