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Mongolian National Mathematical Olympiad

Algebra Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Prove it Mongolia

Find all functions f:R→Rf: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R} satisfying
(a−b)f(a+b)+(b−c)f(b+c)+(c−a)f(c+a)=0 (a-b)f(a+b) + (b-c)f(b+c) + (c-a)f(c+a) = 0
for all a,b,c∈Ra, b, c \in \mathbb{R}.

Solution

Answer: f(x)=Ax+Bf(x) = Ax + B for real numbers AA and BB.
For x∈Rx \in \mathbb{R}, let a=x−12a = \frac{x-1}{2}, b=x+12b = \frac{x+1}{2} and c=1−x2c = \frac{1-x}{2}. Then we have
{a+b=xb+c=1c+a=0 \begin{cases} a+b=x \\ b+c=1 \\ c+a=0 \end{cases}
and
{a−b=−1b−c=xc−a=1−x \begin{cases} a-b=-1 \\ b-c=x \\ c-a=1-x \end{cases}
, therefore we have −f(x)+xf(1)+(1−x)f(0)=0-f(x) + x f(1) + (1-x) f(0) = 0. Denoting A=f(1)−f(0)A = f(1) - f(0) and B=f(0)B = f(0), we get f(x)=Ax+Bf(x) = Ax + B.

Conversely, for any AA and BB, the function f(x)=Ax+Bf(x) = Ax + B satisfies
(a−b)f(a+b)+(b−c)f(b+c)+(c−a)f(c+a)=∑cycA(a2−b2)+B(a−b)=0. (a-b)f(a+b) + (b-c)f(b+c) + (c-a)f(c+a) = \sum_{\text{cyc}} A(a^2 - b^2) + B(a-b) = 0.

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