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Algebra Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Taiwan

Find all functions g:RRg: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R} such that for all x,yRx, y \in \mathbb{R} we always have
(4x+g(x)2)g(y)=4g(y2g(x))+4xyg(x). (4x + g(x)^2)g(y) = 4g\left(\frac{y}{2} \cdot g(x)\right) + 4xy \cdot g(x).

Solution

First we write (4x+g(x)2)g(y)=4g(y2g(x))+4xyg(x)(4x + g(x)^2)g(y) = 4g(\frac{y}{2} \cdot g(x)) + 4xy \cdot g(x) as
(x+(g(x)2)2)g(y)2=12g(yg(x)2)+xyg(x)2. \left(x + \left(\frac{g(x)}{2}\right)^2\right) \frac{g(y)}{2} = \frac{1}{2} g\left(y \cdot \frac{g(x)}{2}\right) + xy \cdot \frac{g(x)}{2}.
Let f(x)=g(x)/2f(x) = g(x)/2, then the original equation can be transformed into
(x+f(x)2)f(y)=f(yf(x))+xyf(x).(1) (x + f(x)^2)f(y) = f(yf(x)) + xyf(x). \quad (1)
Substituting x=1x = 1 into (1), we obtain
(1+f(1)2)f(y)=f(yf(1))+yf(1).(2) (1 + f(1)^2)f(y) = f(yf(1)) + yf(1). \quad (2)
Substituting yy with 1,f(1),f(1)21, f(1), f(1)^2 respectively into (1), we can obtain
f(f(1))=f(1)3,(3) f(f(1)) = f(1)^3, \quad (3)
f(1)3+f(1)5=f(f(1)2)+f(1)2,(4) f(1)^3 + f(1)^5 = f(f(1)^2) + f(1)^2, \quad (4)
f(1)7+2f(1)5f(1)4f(1)2=f(f(1)3).(5) f(1)^7 + 2f(1)^5 - f(1)^4 - f(1)^2 = f(f(1)^3). \quad (5)
Substituting y=1y = 1 and x=f(1)x = f(1) into (1), we can obtain
f(1)2+f(1)7=f(f(1)3)+f(1)4.(6) f(1)^2 + f(1)^7 = f(f(1)^3) + f(1)^4. \quad (6)
From (5) and (6) we derive f(1)5=f(1)2f(1)^5 = f(1)^2. Therefore f(1)=0f(1) = 0 or f(1)=1f(1) = 1.
If f(1)=0f(1) = 0, then from (2) we know that for all yy we always have f(y)=f(0)f(y) = f(0), so we can obtain that ff is a constant function, therefore the unique function satisfying this case is the zero function. If f(1)=1f(1) = 1, then from (2) we know that for all yy we always have f(y)=yf(y) = y, and we verify that this function satisfies (1). So the solutions of (1) are f(x)=0f(x) = 0 and f(x)=xf(x) = x. Since g(x)=2f(x)g(x) = 2f(x), the solutions of the original equation are g(x)=0g(x) = 0 and g(x)=2xg(x) = 2x.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from the original; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.