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Algebra Difficulty 6.7 National olympiad Find the answer

Let R\mathbb{R} be the set of real numbers . Determine all functions f :RRf : \mathbb{R} \rightarrow \mathbb{R} such that

for all pairs of real numbers xx and yy .

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

Solution

Solution 1
We first prove that ff is odd .
Note that f(0)=f(x2x2)=xf(x)xf(x)=0f(0) = f(x^2 - x^2) = xf(x) - xf(x) = 0 , and for nonzero yy , xf(x)+yf(y)=f(x2y2)=xf(x)yf(y)xf(x) + yf(-y) = f(x^2 - y^2) = xf(x) - yf(y) , or yf(y)=yf(y)yf(-y) = -yf(y) , which implies f(y)=f(y)f(-y) = -f(y) . Therefore ff is odd. Henceforth, we shall assume that all variables are non-negative.
If we let y=0y = 0 , then we obtain f(x2)=xf(x)f(x^2) = xf(x) . Therefore the problem's condition becomes
.
But for any a,ba,b , we may set x=ax = \sqrt{a} , y=by = \sqrt{b} to obtain
.
(It is well known that the only continuous solutions to this functional equation are of the form f(x)=kxf(x) = kx , but there do exist other solutions to this which are not solutions to the equation of this problem.)
We may let a=2ta = 2t , b=tb = t to obtain 2f(t)=f(2t)2f(t) = f(2t) .
Letting x=t+1x = t+1 and y=ty = t in the original condition yields

But we know f(2t+1)=f(2t)+f(1)=2f(t)+f(1)f(2t + 1) = f(2t) + f(1) = 2f(t) + f(1) , so we have 2f(t)+f(1)=f(t)+tf(1)+f(1)2f(t) + f(1) = f(t) + tf(1) + f(1) , or
.
Hence all solutions to our equation are of the form f(x)=kxf(x) = kx . It is easy to see that real value of kk will suffice.
Solution 2
As in the first solution, we obtain the result that ff satisfies the condition
.
We note that
.
Since f(2t)=2f(t)f(2t) = 2f(t) , this is equal to

It follows that ff must be of the form f(x)=kxf(x) = kx .

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