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Algebra Difficulty 6.4 National olympiad Find the answer

11.8. Find all continuous functions f:RRf: \mathbf{R} \rightarrow \mathbf{R}, which satisfy the relation

3f(2x+1)=f(x)+5x,xR 3 \cdot f(2 x+1)=f(x)+5 x, \quad \forall x \in \mathbf{R}

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

Solution. First, we will look for solutions in the class of first-degree functions, of the form f(x)=ax+bf(x)=a x+b.

For such functions, we obtain the equivalent relations:

3(a(2x+1)+b)=ax+b+5x,xR,6ax+3a+3b=(a+5)x+b,xR,{6a=a+5,3a+3b=b{a=1b=32 \begin{gathered} 3 \cdot(a \cdot(2 x+1)+b)=a x+b+5 x, \quad \forall x \in \mathbf{R}, \quad \Leftrightarrow \\ 6 a x+3 a+3 b=(a+5) x+b, \quad \forall x \in \mathbf{R}, \quad \Leftrightarrow \\ \left\{\begin{array} { c } { 6 a = a + 5 , } \\ { 3 a + 3 b = b } \end{array} \Leftrightarrow \left\{\begin{array}{c} a=1 \\ b=-\frac{3}{2} \end{array}\right.\right. \end{gathered}

It is easy to verify that the function f1,f1(x)=x32f_{1}, f_{1}(x)=x-\frac{3}{2}, satisfies the conditions of the problem.

We will show that f1f_{1} is the only such function.

Let ff be an arbitrary continuous function that satisfies the conditions of the problem and denote the function g,g(x)=g, g(x)= f(x)(x32)f(x)-\left(x-\frac{3}{2}\right). The function gg is continuous. We will show that g(x)=0,xRg(x)=0, \forall x \in \mathbf{R}.

Substituting f(x)=g(x)+x+32f(x)=g(x)+x+\frac{3}{2} into the given relation and for any xRx \in \mathbf{R}, we have the following equivalent relations:

3(g(2x+1)+2x+132)=g(x)+x32+5x3g(2x+1)+6x32=g(x)+6x323g(2x+1)=g(x) \begin{gathered} 3 \cdot\left(g(2 x+1)+2 x+1-\frac{3}{2}\right)=g(x)+x-\frac{3}{2}+5 x \Leftrightarrow \\ 3 \cdot g(2 x+1)+6 x-\frac{3}{2}=g(x)+6 x-\frac{3}{2} \Leftrightarrow 3 \cdot g(2 x+1)=g(x) \end{gathered}

In the last relation, we substitute xx12x \rightarrow \frac{x-1}{2} and obtain equivalent relations:

3g(2x12+1)=g(x12)3g(x)=g(x12)g(x)=13g(x12) \begin{aligned} 3 \cdot g\left(2 \cdot \frac{x-1}{2}+1\right) & =g\left(\frac{x-1}{2}\right) \Leftrightarrow 3 \cdot g(x)=g\left(\frac{x-1}{2}\right) \Leftrightarrow \\ g(x) & =\frac{1}{3} \cdot g\left(\frac{x-1}{2}\right) \end{aligned}

We will show by induction that

g(x)=13ng(x2n+12n),xR,nN g(x)=\frac{1}{3^{n}} \cdot g\left(\frac{x-2^{n}+1}{2^{n}}\right), \quad \forall x \in \mathbf{R}, \quad \forall n \in \mathbf{N}^{*}

For n=1n=1 we have obtained (1).

Assume that for some m1m \geq 1 we have

g(x)=13mg(x2m+12m),xR g(x)=\frac{1}{3^{m}} \cdot g\left(\frac{x-2^{m}+1}{2^{m}}\right), \quad \forall x \in \mathbf{R}

Then, from (1) and (3), in which we will substitute xx12x \rightarrow \frac{x-1}{2}, we obtain:

g(x)=13g(x12)=1313mg(x122m+12m)=13m+1g(x2m+1+12m+1) g(x)=\frac{1}{3} \cdot g\left(\frac{x-1}{2}\right)=\frac{1}{3} \cdot \frac{1}{3^{m}} \cdot g\left(\frac{\frac{x-1}{2}-2^{m}+1}{2^{m}}\right)=\frac{1}{3^{m+1}} \cdot g\left(\frac{x-2^{m+1}+1}{2^{m+1}}\right)

Thus, relation (2) is proved.

Since gg is a continuous function, then for any xRx \in \mathbf{R} we have

limng(x2n+12n)=g(limn(1+x+12n))=g(1) \lim _{n \rightarrow \infty} g\left(\frac{x-2^{n}+1}{2^{n}}\right)=g\left(\lim _{n \rightarrow \infty}\left(-1+\frac{x+1}{2^{n}}\right)\right)=g(-1)

Thus, passing to the limit in (2), we obtain

g(x)=limn13ng(x2n+12n)=limn13nlimng(x2n+12n)=0g(1)=0,xR g(x)=\lim _{n \rightarrow \infty} \frac{1}{3^{n}} \cdot g\left(\frac{x-2^{n}+1}{2^{n}}\right)=\lim _{n \rightarrow \infty} \frac{1}{3^{n}} \cdot \lim _{n \rightarrow \infty} g\left(\frac{x-2^{n}+1}{2^{n}}\right)=0 \cdot g(-1)=0, \quad \forall x \in \mathbf{R}

Therefore, the function f,f(x)=x32f, f(x)=x-\frac{3}{2}, is the only function that satisfies the conditions of the problem.

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.