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Algebra Difficulty 6.6 National Olympiad Prove it Hong Kong

Let ff be a function defined on the positive reals with the following properties:
(1) f(1)=1f(1) = 1,
(2) f(x+1)=xf(x)f(x + 1) = x f(x), and
(3) f(x)=10g(x)f(x) = 10^{g(x)},
where g(x)g(x) is a function defined on the reals satisfying
g(ty+(1t)z)tg(y)+(1t)g(z) g(ty + (1-t)z) \leq t g(y) + (1-t) g(z)
for all yy and zz and for 0t10 \leq t \leq 1.

a. Prove that t[g(n)g(n1)]g(n+t)g(n)t[g(n+1)g(n)]t [g(n) - g(n-1)] \leq g(n+t) - g(n) \leq t [g(n+1) - g(n)] where nn is an integer and 0t10 \leq t \leq 1.

b. Prove that 43f(12)432\frac{4}{3} \leq f(\frac{1}{2}) \leq \frac{4}{3} \sqrt{2}.

Solution

a.
We label the inequality as follows.
g(ty+(1t)z)tg(y)+(1t)g(z)(1) g(ty + (1-t)z) \leq t g(y) + (1-t) g(z) \quad (1)
Putting y=n1y = n - 1 and z=n+cz = n + c in (1), we obtain
g(t(n1)+(1t)(n+c))tg(n1)+(1t)g(n+c). g(t(n-1) + (1-t)(n+c)) \leq t g(n-1) + (1-t) g(n+c).
Suppose c[0,1]c \in [0, 1]. Replacing tt by c1+c[0,1]\frac{c}{1+c} \in [0, 1], this becomes
g(c(n1)+(n+c)1+c)c1+cg(n1)+11+cg(n+c). g\left(\frac{c(n-1) + (n+c)}{1+c}\right) \leq \frac{c}{1+c} g(n-1) + \frac{1}{1+c} g(n+c).
Note that the left-hand side is just g(n)g(n). Therefore, this is the same as
c[g(n)g(n1)]g(n+c)g(n). c [g(n) - g(n-1)] \leq g(n+c) - g(n).
This is exactly the inequality on the left to be proved.
For the other inequality, we simply put y=n+1y = n+1 and z=nz = n in (1). This gives
g(t(n+1)+(1t)n)tg(n+1)+(1t)g(n). g(t(n+1) + (1-t)n) \leq t g(n+1) + (1-t) g(n).
Note that the left-hand side is just g(n+t)g(n+t). This is exactly the other desired inequality.

b.
Since g(x)=logf(x)g(x) = \log f(x), the inequality in part (a) can be rewritten as
t(logf(n)logf(n1))logf(n+t)logf(n)t(logf(n+1)logf(n)). t (\log f(n) - \log f(n-1)) \leq \log f(n+t) - \log f(n) \leq t (\log f(n+1) - \log f(n)).
This implies
(f(n)f(n1))tf(n+t)f(n)(f(n+1)f(n))t. \left( \frac{f(n)}{f(n-1)} \right)^t \leq \frac{f(n+t)}{f(n)} \leq \left( \frac{f(n+1)}{f(n)} \right)^t.
As f(n)=(n1)f(n1)f(n) = (n-1) f(n-1) and f(n+1)=nf(n)f(n+1) = n f(n), this can be reduced to
(n1)tf(n+t)f(n)nt.(2) (n-1)^t \leq \frac{f(n+t)}{f(n)} \leq n^t. \quad (2)

Now, note that f(2)=1f(1)=1f(2) = 1 \cdot f(1) = 1. Putting n=2n = 2 and t=12t = \frac{1}{2} in (2), we obtain
1f(52)2. 1 \leq f\left(\frac{5}{2}\right) \leq \sqrt{2}.
Using f(52)=32f(32)=34f(12)f\left(\frac{5}{2}\right) = \frac{3}{2} f\left(\frac{3}{2}\right) = \frac{3}{4} f\left(\frac{1}{2}\right), we get

43f(12)432.\frac{4}{3} \leq f\left(\frac{1}{2}\right) \leq \frac{4}{3} \sqrt{2}.

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