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Romanian Mathematical Olympiad

Algebra Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it Romania

Find all real numbers aa and bb so that the equality
⌊ax+by⌋+⌊bx+ay⌋=(a+b)⌊x+y⌋ \lfloor a x + b y \rfloor + \lfloor b x + a y \rfloor = (a + b) \lfloor x + y \rfloor
is true for every real numbers xx and yy.

Solution

Plugging y=−xy = -x and d=a−bd = a - b yields ⌊dx⌋+⌊−dx⌋=0\lfloor d x \rfloor + \lfloor -d x \rfloor = 0, for every x∈Rx \in \mathbb{R}. (*)
If d≠0d \neq 0, then (*) is false for x=1/(2d)x = 1/(2d), hence d=0d = 0. Then x+y=1x + y = 1 leads to 2⌊a⌋=2a2\lfloor a \rfloor = 2a, therefore aa is an integer.
If a=0a = 0 the relation is fulfilled, therefore a solution is a=b=0a = b = 0.

If a≠0a \neq 0, relation 2a⌊x+y⌋=2⌊a(x+y)⌋≤2a(x+y)2a\lfloor x + y \rfloor = 2\lfloor a(x + y) \rfloor \le 2a(x + y) with x+y=1/2x + y = 1/2 leads to a≥0a \ge 0, therefore a≥1a \ge 1. Now x+y=1/ax + y = 1/a gives 1=a⌊1/a⌋1 = a \lfloor 1/a \rfloor, whence a=b=1a = b = 1, which is the second solution.

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