Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /38 of 69

, 2011

Algebra Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it South Africa

Find all functions f:R+R+f: \mathbb{R}^+ \to \mathbb{R}^+ such that for all x,y>0x, y > 0,
f(yf(x))(x+y)=x2(f(x)+f(y)). f(yf(x))(x + y) = x^2(f(x) + f(y)).

Solution

Setting y=xy = x, we obtain 2xf(xf(x))=2x2f(x)2x f(xf(x)) = 2x^2 f(x), and so f(xf(x))=xf(x)f(xf(x)) = x f(x) since x>0x > 0.

Now suppose f(x)=f(y)f(x) = f(y). Then
x2(f(x)+f(y))=f(yf(x))(x+y)=f(yf(y))(x+y)=yf(y)(x+y) x^2(f(x) + f(y)) = f(yf(x))(x + y) = f(yf(y))(x + y) = y f(y)(x + y)
and so
2x2f(x)=(xy+y2)f(y)    2x2xyy2=(2x+y)(xy)=0    x=y, 2x^2 f(x) = (x y + y^2) f(y) \implies 2x^2 - x y - y^2 = (2x + y)(x - y) = 0 \implies x = y,
since all the quantities in the equations are positive and so y2xy \ne -2x. So ff is injective. Moreover, setting x=y=1x = y = 1, we obtain f(f(1))=f(1)f(f(1)) = f(1), and so injectivity implies that f(1)=1f(1) = 1.

Now set x=1x = 1 in the given equation:
f(y)(y+1)=1+f(y)    f(y)=1y, f(y)(y + 1) = 1 + f(y) \implies f(y) = \frac{1}{y},
and it is a simple matter to check that the solution f(x)=1xf(x) = \frac{1}{x} satisfies the given equation.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.