Let f:R+→R+ be a non-constant function. Prove that there exist a,b∈R+ such that f(a)+f(b)>2f(ab).
Solution
Assume the contrary that for all a,b∈R+ we have that f(a)+f(b)≤2f(ab). Let P(a,b) denote that assertion. First, P(a,a1) gives us f(a)+f(a1)≤2f(1), and as f is positive, we obtain that it is bounded. We will show by mathematical induction that for any arbitrary a∈R+ f(a2n)≤2n(f(a)−f(1))+f(1).(∗) We obtain the base case by directly evaluating P(a2,1), which yields f(a2)≤2f(a)−f(1)=2(f(a)−f(1))+f(1). Assume that the statement holds for some n=k−1. From P(a2k,1), we obtain f(a2k)≤2f(a2k−1)−f(1). From the inductive hypothesis, we have that f(a2k−1)≤2k−1(f(a)−f(1))+f(1). By chaining the inequalities we obtain f(a2k)≤2k(f(a)−f(1))+f(1), which we needed to show. Assume that there exists an a such that f(a)<f(1). As (*) holds true for any arbitrary a∈R+, we obtain that for a large enough n we will have that f(a2n)≤2n(f(a)−f(1))+f(1)<0, a contradiction with the fact that our function is positive. Therefore, f(a)≥f(1) for all a∈R+. Assume that for some a we have that f(a)>f(1). Since we have that f(a1)≥f(1), revisiting P(a,a1) we obtain that 2f(1)<f(a)+f(a1)≤2f(1), a contradiction. We obtain that the equality f(a)=f(1) must hold true for all a, but this contradicts the assumption that f is non-constant.
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