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Algebra Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Prove it Croatia

Find all functions f:Q+Q+f: \mathbb{Q}^+ \to \mathbb{Q}^+ such that
f(x2f(y)2)=f(x)2f(y) f(x^2 f(y)^2) = f(x)^2 f(y)
holds for all positive rational numbers xx and yy.

Solution

Plugging (x,y)(f(x),y)(x, y) \leftarrow (f(x), y) into the given equation, it follows that
f(f(x)2f(y)2)=f(f(x))2f(y) f(f(x)^2 f(y)^2) = f(f(x))^2 f(y)
holds for all positive rational numbers xx and yy, hence f(f(y))2f(x)=f(f(x)2f(y)2)=f(f(x))2f(y)f(f(y))^2 f(x) = f(f(x)^2 f(y)^2) = f(f(x))^2 f(y), i.e.
f(x)f(y)=(f(f(x))f(f(y)))2=(f2(x)f2(y))2, \frac{f(x)}{f(y)} = \left( \frac{f(f(x))}{f(f(y))} \right)^2 = \left( \frac{f^2(x)}{f^2(y)} \right)^2,
where fkf^k denotes the kkth iterate of ff.
By mathematical induction, we can show that
f(x)f(y)=(fn(x)fn(y))2n1 \frac{f(x)}{f(y)} = \left( \frac{f^n(x)}{f^n(y)} \right)^{2^{n-1}}
holds, meaning that f(x)/f(y)f(x)/f(y) is the (2n)th(2^n)^{th} power of a rational number for all positive integers nn. Hence, f(x)=f(y)f(x) = f(y) holds for all positive rational numbers xx and yy, i.e. f(x)f(x) is a constant.
Finally, from the given equation we get that f(x)=1f(x) = 1 for all positive rational numbers xx is the only solution.

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