Find all functions ( denotes the set of all positive integers, the set of all real numbers) such that
for all .
Solutions — 2
Solution 1
Plugging in yields
which implies . Plugging in and , respectively, we obtain the two inequalities
We add the two to get
or
This means that for all . Now assume that there is a positive integer such that . The function is increasing on : for ,
we have
Hence, for any , we have
and thus
Returning to (2), we now find, by our assumption that ,
and since
we get
Iterating this inequality yields , , etc., and generally (by induction) . Since and , this implies for sufficiently large , which contradicts the inequality that was obtained earlier.
It follows that there is no such that , which means that the constant function is the only solution (and it is easy to see that this function satisfies the condition, since the left hand side of the inequality is always equal to 1 in this case).
Solution 2
It is given that
for all .
Put into (3) to get , giving
Put into (3) to get , giving
for all . Put into (3) to get , giving
again for all . From (5) and (6) it follows that
for all . We now prove the statement
to be true for all , using induction on . The case is just (7).
Assume to be true. Suppose there is a such that . Then, using (6), we obtain
giving , which violates . So follows.
It is now clear that the constant function is the only solution.