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Algebra Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it North Macedonia

Find all functions f:RRf: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R} which satisfy the conditions:
f(x+y)<f(x)+f(y), f(x+y) < f(x) + f(y),
f(f(x))=[x]+2. f(f(x)) = [x] + 2.

Solution

Let f(0)=af(0) = a, then f(a)=f(f(0))=2f(a) = f(f(0)) = 2, f(2)=f(f(a))=a+2f(2) = f(f(a)) = a + 2. Continuing this procedure we get that f(2k)=a+2kf(2k) = a + 2k and f(a+2k)=2k+2f(a + 2k) = 2k + 2. We get 2k+2=f(a+2k)<f(a)+f(2k)=2+a+2k2k + 2 = f(a + 2k) < f(a) + f(2k) = 2 + a + 2k, from where we get that a>0a > 0. If we put x=y=ax = y = a we get a+2a=f(2a)<f(a)+f(a)=4a + 2a = f(2a) < f(a) + f(a) = 4 so 3a<43a < 4. i.e. a=1a = 1. Hence using f(2k)=a+2kf(2k) = a + 2k and f(a+2k)=2k+2f(a + 2k) = 2k + 2 we get f(x)=x+1f(x) = x + 1 for all natural numbers xx.

For x=y=12x = y = \frac{1}{2} in the inequality we get 2=f(1)=f(12+12)<2f(12)2 = f(1) = f(\frac{1}{2} + \frac{1}{2}) < 2f(\frac{1}{2}), so f(12)>1f(\frac{1}{2}) > 1. On the other hand 1+f(12)=f(f(12))=21 + f(\frac{1}{2}) = f(f(\frac{1}{2})) = 2, so f(12)=1f(\frac{1}{2}) = 1, which is a contradiction. It follows that there exists no function satisfying the required conditions.

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