Problem:
Find all functions from rational to real numbers such that for all rational ,
Solution
Solution:
Let be the given condition. Expanding gives
Let be the quadratic that equals at . Plugging in , we get that it also intersects at . Plugging in then gives that it also intersects at , and continuing this induction gives that it is equal to for all positive integers. Continuing this reasoning in the other direction gives that it is equal to for all negative integers as well.
We now claim that is in fact equal to . Let be a rational number. Consider the arithmetic sequence from to with difference . By similar reasoning, is a quadratic over this sequence. However, contains three of the terms: . Therefore, is equal to over this sequence; in particular, .
Therefore, is a quadratic, and all quadratics work, so the answer is all quadratics.