Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2017

Algebra Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:
Let f:RRf: \mathbb{R} \rightarrow \mathbb{R} be a function satisfying f(x)f(y)=f(xy)f(x) f(y) = f(x-y). Find all possible values of f(2017)f(2017).

Solution

Solution:
Let P(x,y)P(x, y) be the given assertion. From P(0,0)P(0,0) we get f(0)2=f(0)f(0)=0,1f(0)^2 = f(0) \Longrightarrow f(0) = 0, 1.
From P(x,x)P(x, x) we get f(x)2=f(0)f(x)^2 = f(0). Thus, if f(0)=0f(0) = 0, we have f(x)=0f(x) = 0 for all xx, which satisfies the given constraints. Thus f(2017)=0f(2017) = 0 is one possibility.

Now suppose f(0)=1f(0) = 1. We then have P(0,y)f(y)=f(y)P(0, y) \Longrightarrow f(-y) = f(y), so that P(x,y)f(x)f(y)=f(xy)=f(x)f(y)=f(x+y)P(x, -y) \Longrightarrow f(x) f(y) = f(x-y) = f(x) f(-y) = f(x+y). Thus f(xy)=f(x+y)f(x-y) = f(x+y), and in particular f(0)=f(x2x2)=f(x2+x2)=f(x)f(0) = f\left(\frac{x}{2} - \frac{x}{2}\right) = f\left(\frac{x}{2} + \frac{x}{2}\right) = f(x). It follows that f(x)=1f(x) = 1 for all xx, which also satisfies all given constraints.

Thus the two possibilities are f(2017)=0,1f(2017) = 0, 1.

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