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Slovenian Mathematical Olympiad, 2008

Algebra Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it Slovenia

Find all functions f:R→Rf: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}, such that
x+f(xf(y))=f(y)+yf(x) x + f(xf(y)) = f(y) + yf(x)
for all real xx and yy.

Solution

If x=0x = 0 we get f(0)=f(y)+yf(0)f(0) = f(y) + y f(0). So, ff is a linear function of the form f(x)=a−axf(x) = a - a x for some real aa. Inserting this into the functional equation we see that for all x,y∈Rx, y \in \mathbb{R} we have x+a−ax(a−ay)=a−ay+y(a−ax)x + a - a x(a - a y) = a - a y + y(a - a x), so
x−a2x+a2xy=−axy. x - a^2 x + a^2 x y = -a x y.
Now, let y=0y = 0 to see that x=a2xx = a^2 x for all xx, so a2=1a^2 = 1. Under this condition the above equality becomes xy=−axyx y = -a x y or, equivalently, (1+a)xy=0(1 + a) x y = 0, which then implies a=−1a = -1, since this last equality has to hold for all xx and yy.
We have shown that f(x)=x−1f(x) = x - 1. Using this expression for ff in the initial functional equation, we see that the left-hand side is equal to
x+f(xf(y))=x+f(xy−x)=x+xy−x−1=xy−1 x + f(x f(y)) = x + f(x y - x) = x + x y - x - 1 = x y - 1
and the right-hand side becomes
f(y)+yf(x)=y−1+y(x−1)=xy−1. f(y) + y f(x) = y - 1 + y(x - 1) = x y - 1.
The two sides are equal for all xx and yy, so f(x)=x−1f(x) = x - 1 is the (only) solution to our equation.

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