Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:
Find all functions f:QRf: \mathbb{Q} \rightarrow \mathbb{R} from rational to real numbers such that for all rational p,qp, q,
f(p+2q)f(p2q)=2(f(p+q)f(pq)). f(p+2q) - f(p-2q) = 2(f(p+q) - f(p-q)).

Solution

Solution:
Let P(p,q)P(p, q) be the given condition. Expanding P(pq,q)+2P(p,q)+P(p+q,q)P(p-q, q) + 2P(p, q) + P(p+q, q) gives
f(p+3q)f(p3q)=3(f(p+q)f(pq)). f(p+3q) - f(p-3q) = 3(f(p+q) - f(p-q)).
Let FF be the quadratic that equals ff at 1,0,1-1, 0, 1. Plugging in p=0.5,q=0.5p=0.5, q=0.5, we get that it also intersects ff at 22. Plugging in p=1.5,q=0.5p=1.5, q=0.5 then gives that it also intersects ff at 33, and continuing this induction gives that it is equal to ff for all positive integers. Continuing this reasoning in the other direction gives that it is equal to ff for all negative integers as well.

We now claim that ff is in fact equal to FF. Let r/sr/s be a rational number. Consider the arithmetic sequence from r-r to rr with difference r/sr/s. By similar reasoning, ff is a quadratic over this sequence. However, FF contains three of the terms: r,0,r-r, 0, r. Therefore, ff is equal to FF over this sequence; in particular, f(r/s)=F(r/s)f(r/s) = F(r/s).

Therefore, ff is a quadratic, and all quadratics work, so the answer is all quadratics.

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