Find all functions f:R→R which satisfy f(33x)=3f(x)−323xf(x)f(y)=f(xy)+f(yx) for all x,y∈R, with y=0.
Solution
Let f:R→R be a function which satisfies the two functional equations. Because f(33x)−3f(1)=−323=0, either f(1)=0 or f(33x)=0. Fix x0∈R with f(x0)=0 and let y∈R with y=0. We have f(x0)f(y1)=f(yx0)+f(x0y)=f(x0)f(y). Therefore, f(y1)=f(y) for all y=0. Let x=0. We have f(33x)=3f(x)−323x=3f(33x33)−323x=3(3f(33x1)−x2)−323x=3f(33x)−x23−323x We deduce that f(33x)=x3+33x and therefore f(x)=x+x1 for all x=0. For x=0 and y=2, we have from the second functional equation 25f(0)=f(0)+f(0) which implies that f(0)=0. Hence f(x)={x+x10 if x=0 otherwise Conversely, it is easy to check that this function satisfies the two functional equations.
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