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Algebra Difficulty 8.3 Shortlist Prove it Hong Kong

Find all functions f:RRf : \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R} such that
(i) the set {f(x)xx0}\left\{ \frac{f(x)}{x} \mid x \ne 0 \right\} is finite,
(ii) f(3x1f(x))=3(f(x)13x)f(3x - 1 - f(x)) = 3(f(x) - 1 - 3x) for all xRx \in \mathbb{R}.

Solution

The only solution is f(x)=3xf(x) = 3x.
When f(x)=3xf(x) = 3x, we have
f(3x1f(x))=f(1)=3=3(1)=3(f(x)13x). f(3x - 1 - f(x)) = f(-1) = -3 = 3(-1) = 3(f(x) - 1 - 3x).
Also, f(x)x=3\frac{f(x)}{x} = 3 is a constant. So f(x)=3xf(x) = 3x is a solution.

Now, we show that this is the only solution. Let g(x)=3x1f(x)g(x) = 3x - 1 - f(x) for any xRx \in \mathbb{R}. If g(x)=0g(x) = 0 and x0x \neq 0, then f(x)=3x1f(x) = 3x - 1 and so f(x)x=31x\frac{f(x)}{x} = 3 - \frac{1}{x}. By condition (i), there are finitely many xx such that g(x)=0g(x) = 0.
For those xRx \in \mathbb{R} with g(x)0g(x) \neq 0, we rewrite condition (ii) as follows:
f(g(x))g(x)=3(f(x)13x)3x1f(x)=363x1f(x)=36g(x). \frac{f(g(x))}{g(x)} = \frac{3(f(x) - 1 - 3x)}{3x - 1 - f(x)} = -3 - \frac{6}{3x - 1 - f(x)} = -3 - \frac{6}{g(x)}.
By condition (i), the left-hand side only takes finitely many values. This implies g(x)g(x) only takes finitely many values (possibly 0).
Consider any yRy \in \mathbb{R} such that f(y)3y=g(y)+1|f(y) - 3y| = |g(y) + 1| is maximized. For this yy, we use (ii) to obtain
f(g(y))3g(y)=3(f(y)13y)3(3y1f(y))=6(f(y)3y). f(g(y)) - 3g(y) = 3(f(y) - 1 - 3y) - 3(3y - 1 - f(y)) = 6(f(y) - 3y).
This implies f(g(y))3g(y)=6f(y)3y|f(g(y)) - 3g(y)| = 6|f(y) - 3y|. By the choice of yy, we must have f(y)3y=0f(y) - 3y = 0. Since yy is chosen to maximize f(y)3y|f(y) - 3y|, we can only have f(x)=3xf(x) = 3x for any xRx \in \mathbb{R}.

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