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Algebra Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it Romania

Determine the continuous increasing functions f:[0,)Rf: [0, \infty) \to \mathbb{R} satisfying
0x+yf(t)dt=0xf(t)dt+0yf(t)dt, \int_{0}^{x+y} f(t) dt = \int_{0}^{x} f(t) dt + \int_{0}^{y} f(t) dt,
for all non-negative real numbers xx and yy.

Solution

Clearly, every constant function satisfies the required conditions. Conversely, write the condition in the statement in the equivalent form
xx+yf(t)dt0yf(t)dt \int_{x}^{x+y} f(t) \, dt \le \int_{0}^{y} f(t) \, dt
to infer that 0yf(t+x)dt0yf(t)dt\int_{0}^{y} f(t+x) \, dt \le \int_{0}^{y} f(t) \, dt for all non-negative xx and yy.
On the other hand, since ff is increasing, f(t+x)f(t)f(t+x) \ge f(t) for all tt in the closed interval [0,y][0, y] and all x0x \ge 0, so 0yf(t+x)dt0yf(t)dt\int_{0}^{y} f(t+x) \, dt \ge \int_{0}^{y} f(t) \, dt.
Consequently, 0yf(t+x)dt=0yf(t)dt\int_{0}^{y} f(t+x) \, dt = \int_{0}^{y} f(t) \, dt for all non-negative xx and yy. Continuity of ff forces f(x+y)=f(y)f(x+y) = f(y) for all non-negative xx and yy. In particular, f(x)=f(0)f(x) = f(0) for all x0x \ge 0, so ff is constant.

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