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Macedonian Mathematical Competitions

Algebra Difficulty 5.9 AIME, harder Prove it North Macedonia

Find all the real functions f:R→Rf: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R} such that
f(x2−y2)=(x−y)[f(x)+f(y)] f(x^2 - y^2) = (x - y)[f(x) + f(y)]

Solution

If x=yx = y, we have
f(x2−y2)=(x−y)[f(x)+f(y)],f(0)=0⋅[2f(x)]=0. f(x^2 - y^2) = (x - y)[f(x) + f(y)], \quad f(0) = 0 \cdot [2f(x)] = 0.
Then f(0)=0f(0) = 0.
If y=−xy = -x, we have
f[x2−(−x)2]=[x−(−x)][f(x)+f(−x)],f(0)=2x[f(x)+f(−x)],0=−2x[f(x)+f(−x)]. \begin{aligned} f[x^2 - (-x)^2] &= [x - (-x)][f(x) + f(-x)], \quad f(0) = 2x[f(x) + f(-x)], \\ 0 &= -2x[f(x) + f(-x)]. \end{aligned}
From the last equation we have f(x)+f(−x)=0f(x) + f(-x) = 0, f(−x)=−f(x)f(-x) = -f(x), for every x∈Rx \in \mathbb{R}. This means that ff is an odd function.

(x−y)[f(x)+f(y)]=f(x2−y2)=(x+y)[f(x)−f(y)](x - y)[f(x) + f(y)] = f(x^2 - y^2) = (x + y)[f(x) - f(y)],
i.e.
(x−y)[f(x)+f(y)]=(x+y)[f(x)−f(y)],xf(x)−yf(x)+xf(y)−yf(y)=xf(x)+yf(x)−xf(y)−yf(y),−yf(x)+xf(y)=yf(x)−xf(y),2yf(x)=2xf(y). (x-y)[f(x)+f(y)]=(x+y)[f(x)-f(y)], \\ xf(x)-yf(x)+xf(y)-yf(y)=xf(x)+yf(x)-xf(y)-yf(y), \\ -yf(x)+xf(y)=yf(x)-xf(y), \\ 2yf(x)=2xf(y).
If y=1y=1 and f(1)=kf(1)=k, then f(x)=kxf(x)=kx, for k∈Rk \in \mathbb{R}. It's easy to see that all the functions f(x)=kxf(x)=kx are the solution to (1).

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