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Algebra Difficulty 6.0 AIME, harder Prove it Thailand

Let f:(0,)Rf : (0, \infty) \to \mathbb{R} be such that for all x,y(0,)x, y \in (0, \infty),
f(x+y)=f(x+yxy)+f(xy). f(x + y) = f\left(\frac{x + y}{xy}\right) + f(xy).
Show that f(xy)=f(x)+f(y)f(xy) = f(x) + f(y) for all x,y(0,)x, y \in (0, \infty).

Solution

First, we show that f(ab)=f(a)+f(b)f(ab) = f(a) + f(b) for a,b(0,)a, b \in (0, \infty) such that a2b4a^2b \geq 4. In fact, if a2b4a^2b \geq 4 and a,b>0a, b > 0, then we can find x,y>0x, y > 0 such that x+y=abx + y = ab and xy=bxy = b, namely
x=a+a2(4/b)(2/b)>0andy=aa2(4/b)(2/b)>0. x = \frac{a + \sqrt{a^2 - (4/b)}}{(2/b)} > 0 \quad \text{and} \quad y = \frac{a - \sqrt{a^2 - (4/b)}}{(2/b)} > 0.

Thus, for a,b(0,)a, b \in (0, \infty) such that a2b4a^2b \ge 4, we plug x,yx, y as above in the functional equation to get f(ab)=f(x+y)=f(x+yxy)+f(xy)=f((ab)/b)+f(b)=f(a)+f(b)f(ab) = f(x+y) = f(\frac{x+y}{xy}) + f(xy) = f((ab)/b) + f(b) = f(a) + f(b). Now let x,y>0x, y > 0. Let
z=max{4x2y2,4x2y,4y2}>0. z = \max \left\{ \frac{4}{x^2 y^2}, \frac{4}{x^2 y}, \frac{4}{y^2} \right\} > 0.
Then (xy)2z4(xy)^2z \ge 4, x2(yz)4x^2(yz) \ge 4 and y2z4y^2z \ge 4 which imply that f(xyz)=f(xy)+f(z)f(xyz) = f(xy) + f(z), f(xyz)=f(x)+f(yz)f(xyz) = f(x) + f(yz) and f(yz)=f(y)+f(z)f(yz) = f(y) + f(z) respectively. Therefore,

f(xy)=f(xyz)f(z)=(f(x)+f(yz))f(z)=f(x)+f(yz)f(z)=f(x)+(f(y)+f(z))f(z)=f(x)+f(y).\begin{aligned} f(xy) &= f(xyz) - f(z) \\ &= (f(x) + f(yz)) - f(z) \\ &= f(x) + f(yz) - f(z) \\ &= f(x) + (f(y) + f(z)) - f(z) = f(x) + f(y). \end{aligned}

Figure 1

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