Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2015

Algebra Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:
Let f:R+Rf: \mathbb{R}^{+} \rightarrow \mathbb{R} be a continuous function satisfying f(xy)=f(x)+f(y)+1f(x y)=f(x)+f(y)+1 for all positive reals x,yx, y. If f(2)=0f(2)=0, compute f(2015)f(2015).

Solution

Solution:
Answer: log220151\log_{2} 2015-1
Let g(x)=f(x)+1g(x)=f(x)+1. Substituting gg into the functional equation, we get that
g(xy)1=g(x)1+g(y)1+1g(xy)=g(x)+g(y) \begin{gathered} g(x y)-1=g(x)-1+g(y)-1+1 \\ g(x y)=g(x)+g(y) \end{gathered}
Also, g(2)=1g(2)=1. Now substitute x=exx=e^{x'}, y=eyy=e^{y'}, which is possible because x,yR+x, y \in \mathbb{R}^{+}. Then set h(x)=g(ex)h(x)=g\left(e^{x}\right). This gives us that
g(ex+y)=g(ex)+g(ey)h(x+y)=h(x)+h(y) g\left(e^{x'+y'}\right)=g\left(e^{x'}\right)+g\left(e^{y'}\right) \Longrightarrow h\left(x'+y'\right)=h\left(x'\right)+h\left(y'\right)
for all x,yRx', y' \in \mathbb{R}. Also hh is continuous. Therefore, by Cauchy's functional equation, h(x)=cxh(x)=c x for a real number cc. Going all the way back to gg, we can get that g(x)=clogxg(x)=c \log x. Since g(2)=1g(2)=1, c=1log2c=\frac{1}{\log 2}. Therefore, g(2015)=clog2015=log2015log2=log22015g(2015)=c \log 2015=\frac{\log 2015}{\log 2}=\log_{2} 2015.
Finally, f(2015)=g(2015)1=log220151f(2015)=g(2015)-1=\log_{2} 2015-1.

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