Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Estonia

Find all functions ff from the set of all non-negative real numbers to the set of all real numbers such that f(1)=1f(1) = 1 and
(f(x+y))2f(x22xy+y2) (f(x+y))^2 \le f(x^2 - 2xy + y^2)
for all real numbers xx and yy that satisfy the inequality x+y0x + y \ge 0.

Solution

The given inequality can be rewritten as
(f(x+y))2f((xy)2). (f(x+y))^2 \le f((x-y)^2).

Take y=1xy = 1-x. Then 1=12=(f(1))2f((2x1)2)1 = 1^2 = (f(1))^2 \le f((2x-1)^2). As (2x1)2(2x-1)^2 obtains all non-negative real values, we can conclude that 1f(z)1 \le f(z) for every non-negative real number zz.
Now take x12x \ge -\frac{1}{2} and y=1+xy = 1+x. Then (f(2x+1))2f(1)=1(f(2x+1))^2 \le f(1) = 1. This implies f(2x+1)1f(2x+1) \le 1 because all values of ff are non-negative by the above. As 2x+12x+1 obtains all non-negative real values, we can deduce that f(z)1f(z) \le 1 for every non-negative real number zz.

Consequently, f(z)=1f(z) = 1 for every non-negative real number zz. This function satisfies all conditions of the problem.

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