Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /678 of 860

Algebra Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Find the answer

Let A:=Q\{0,1} A:=\mathbb{Q} \backslash\{0,1\} denote the set of all rationals other than 0 and 1. A function f:AR f: A \rightarrow \mathbb{R} has the property that for all xA x \in A , f(x)+f(11x)=logx f(x)+f\left(1-\frac{1}{x}\right)=\log |x| . Compute the value of f(2007) f(2007) .

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

Let g:AA g: A \rightarrow A be defined by g(x):=11/x g(x):=1-1 / x ; the key property is that g(g(g(x)))=111111x=x g(g(g(x)))=1-\frac{1}{1-\frac{1}{1-\frac{1}{x}}}=x . The given equation rewrites as f(x)+f(g(x))=logx f(x)+f(g(x))=\log |x| . Substituting x=g(y) x=g(y) and x=g(g(z)) x=g(g(z)) gives the further equations f(g(y))+f(g(g(y)))=logg(x) f(g(y))+f(g(g(y)))=\log |g(x)| and f(g(g(z)))+f(z)=logg(g(x)) f(g(g(z)))+f(z)=\log |g(g(x))| . Setting y y and z z to x x and solving the system of three equations for f(x) f(x) gives f(x)=12(logxlogg(x)+logg(g(x))) f(x)=\frac{1}{2} \cdot(\log |x|-\log |g(x)|+\log |g(g(x))|) . For x=2007 x=2007 , we have g(x)=20062007 g(x)=\frac{2006}{2007} and g(g(x))=12006 g(g(x))=\frac{-1}{2006} , so that f(2007)=log2007log20062007+log120062=log(2007/2006) f(2007)=\frac{\log |2007|-\log \left|\frac{2006}{2007}\right|+\log \left|\frac{-1}{2006}\right|}{2}=\log (2007 / 2006) .

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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