Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:
Suppose ff and gg are differentiable functions such that
xg(f(x))f(g(x))g(x)=f(g(x))g(f(x))f(x) x g(f(x)) f'(g(x)) g'(x) = f(g(x)) g'(f(x)) f'(x)
for all real xx. Moreover, ff is nonnegative and gg is positive. Furthermore,
0af(g(x))dx=1e2a2 \int_{0}^{a} f(g(x)) dx = 1 - \frac{e^{-2a}}{2}
for all reals aa. Given that g(f(0))=1g(f(0)) = 1, compute the value of g(f(4))g(f(4)).

Solution

Solution:
Differentiating the given integral with respect to aa gives f(g(a))=e2af(g(a)) = e^{-2a}. Now
xd[ln(f(g(x)))]dx=xf(g(x))g(x)f(g(x))=g(f(x))f(x)g(f(x))=d[ln(g(f(x)))]dx x \frac{d[\ln (f(g(x)))]}{dx} = x \frac{f'(g(x)) g'(x)}{f(g(x))} = \frac{g'(f(x)) f'(x)}{g(f(x))} = \frac{d[\ln (g(f(x)))]}{dx}
where the second equals sign follows from the given. Since ln(f(g(x)))=2x\ln (f(g(x))) = -2x, we have x2+C=ln(g(f(x)))-x^2 + C = \ln (g(f(x))), so g(f(x))=Kex2g(f(x)) = K e^{-x^2}. It follows that K=1K = 1 and g(f(4))=e16g(f(4)) = e^{-16}.

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