Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Vietnam

Find all functions f:R+R+f: \mathbb{R}^+ \to \mathbb{R}^+ such that
f(f(x)x+y)=1+f(y),x,y>0. f\left(\frac{f(x)}{x} + y\right) = 1 + f(y), \forall x, y > 0.

Solution

Firstly, we will prove that f(x)x\frac{f(x)}{x} is a constant.
Assume that there exists a,b(0,+)a, b \in (0, +\infty) such that f(a)af(b)b\frac{f(a)}{a} \neq \frac{f(b)}{b}.
Without loss of generality, we assume that f(a)a<f(b)b\frac{f(a)}{a} < \frac{f(b)}{b}. By plugging x=a,x=bx = a, x = b into the relation, we get
f(y+f(a)a)=f(y+f(b)b)=f(y)+1 f\left(y + \frac{f(a)}{a}\right) = f\left(y + \frac{f(b)}{b}\right) = f(y) + 1
for all positive real numbers yy. Denote K=f(b)bf(a)aK = \frac{f(b)}{b} - \frac{f(a)}{a}, we obtain that f(x)=f(x+K)f(x) = f(x + K) for all x>f(a)ax > \frac{f(a)}{a}. Furthermore, we have
f(y+nf(a)a)=f(y+(n1)f(a)a)+1==f(y)+n>n. f\left(y + n \cdot \frac{f(a)}{a}\right) = f\left(y + (n-1) \cdot \frac{f(a)}{a}\right) + 1 \\ = \dots = f(y) + n > n.
Thus f(x)>nf(x) > n for all x>nf(a)ax > n \cdot \frac{f(a)}{a}. Now, for an arbitrary positive number xx, choose n=f(x)+2>f(x)n = \lfloor f(x) \rfloor + 2 > f(x) and a positive integer mm such that x+mK>nf(a)ax + mK > n \cdot \frac{f(a)}{a}, we have f(x+mK)>n>f(x)=f(x+mK)f(x + mK) > n > f(x) = f(x + mK), which is a contradiction.

Hence, f(x)x\frac{f(x)}{x} is a constant. Denote f(x)x=c\frac{f(x)}{x} = c and replace f(x)=cxf(x) = cx in the original equation, one can find that c=1c = 1. Thus, f(x)=xf(x) = x for all positive numbers xx. \square

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