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Algebra Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it Romania

Find all functions f:QQf : \mathbb{Q} \to \mathbb{Q} such that
f(x+3f(y))=f(x)+f(y)+2y, f(x + 3f(y)) = f(x) + f(y) + 2y,
for all x,yQx, y \in \mathbb{Q}.

Solution

We claim that the solutions are f1(x)=xf_1(x) = x and f2(x)=2x/3f_2(x) = -2x/3, for all real xx.

Set x=y3f(y)x = y - 3f(y) to obtain f(y3f(y))=2yf(y - 3f(y)) = -2y, yQy \in \mathbb{Q}. Replacing yy with y3f(y)y - 3f(y) in the initial equation gives f(x6y)=f(x)2y+2(y3f(y))f(x - 6y) = f(x) - 2y + 2(y - 3f(y)), hence f(x6y)=f(x)6f(y)f(x - 6y) = f(x) - 6f(y), for all x,yQx, y \in \mathbb{Q}.

Set now x=y=0x = y = 0 to get f(0)=0f(0) = 0 and replace x=6yx = 6y to obtain f(6y)=6f(y)f(6y) = 6f(y), for all yQy \in \mathbb{Q}.

We derived that f(x6y)=f(x)f(6y)f(x - 6y) = f(x) - f(6y), which, for u=6yu = 6y and v=x6yv = x - 6y, yields f(u+v)=f(u)+f(v)f(u + v) = f(u) + f(v), for all u,vQu, v \in \mathbb{Q}. The solution of this classical functional equation is f(x)=xf(1)f(x) = x f(1), xQx \in \mathbb{Q}.

On the other hand, by setting x=y=1x = y = 1 in the initial equation we obtain 3f2(1)f(1)2=03f^2(1) - f(1) - 2 = 0, hence f(1)=1f(1) = 1 or f(1)=2/3f(1) = -2/3, thus proving our claim.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.