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Algebra Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it Saudi Arabia

Find all functions f:RRf : \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R} satisfying the following conditions:
(i) there is at most one number aa such that f(a)=0,f(a) = 0,
(ii) f(f(x+y)f(xy)+25xy+y2)=24yf(x)+xf(x+y)f(f(x+y)f(x-y) + 25xy + y^2) = 24yf(x) + xf(x+y) for all real x,yx, y.

Solution

First, setting y=0y = 0 to give f(f(x)2)=xf(x)f(f(x)^2) = x f(x).

Then setting x=0x = 0 to get f(f(y)f(y)+y2)=24yf(0)f(f(y)f(-y) + y^2) = 24y f(0). Now change yy by y-y then the LHS does not change, so we will get
24yf(0)=24yf(0),y    f(0)=0. 24y f(0) = -24y f(0), \forall y \implies f(0) = 0.
From f(f(y)f(y)+y2)=0f(f(y)f(-y) + y^2) = 0, one can get f(y)f(y)=y2f(y)f(-y) = -y^2.

Setting y=xy = -x to get f(24x2)=24xf(x)f(-24x^2) = -24x f(x), change xx to x-x will implies that f(x)f(x) is odd. Thus f(y)2=y2f(y)^2 = y^2. We have two solutions: f(x)=xf(x) = x for all xx and f(x)=xf(x) = -x for all xx.

Now we need to handle the point-wise trap. Let A={aR{0}f(a)=a}A = \{a \in \mathbb{R} \setminus \{0\} \mid f(a) = a\} and B={aR{0}f(b)=b}B = \{a \in \mathbb{R} \setminus \{0\} \mid f(b) = -b\}, suppose that these sets are non-empty. Take aAa \in A and bBb \in B.

Let x=a,y=bax = a, y = b - a to give f(x+y)=f(b)=bf(x + y) = f(b) = -b and f(xy)=f(2ab)f(x - y) = f(2a - b). Thus
LHS=f(bf(2ab)+2a(ba)+(ba)2)=±(b±(2ab)+b2a2). \text{LHS} = f(-b f(2a - b) + 2a(b - a) + (b - a)^2) = \pm(-b \pm (2a - b) + b^2 - a^2).
RHS=(ba)a+a(b)=a2. \text{RHS} = (b - a)a + a(-b) = -a^2.
Thus ±(±(2ab)(b)+b2a2)=a2\pm(\pm(2a - b)(-b) + b^2 - a^2) = -a^2. For each pair of a,ba, b, there are 4 ways to choose the sign so for some fixed value aa, there are at most 8 ways to choose bb which implies that B8|B| \le 8. Similarly, A8|A| \le 8, this is contradiction since AB=R{0}A \cup B = \mathbb{R} \setminus \{0\}.

Hence, f(x)=xf(x) = x for all xx and f(x)=xf(x) = -x for all xx. \square

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