Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /829 of 860

Algebra Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Find the answer

Find, with proof, all functions f:R\{0}Rf: \mathbb{R} \backslash\{0\} \rightarrow \mathbb{R} such that f(x)2f(y)f(z)=x(x+y+z)(f(x)+f(y)+f(z))f(x)^{2}-f(y) f(z)=x(x+y+z)(f(x)+f(y)+f(z)) for all real x,y,zx, y, z such that xyz=1xyz=1.

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

Solution

The answer is either f(x)=0f(x)=0 for all xx or f(x)=x21xf(x)=x^{2}-\frac{1}{x} for all xx. These can be checked to work. Now, I will prove that these are the only solutions. Let P(x,y,z)P(x, y, z) be the assertion of the problem statement. Lemma 1. f(x){0,x21x}f(x) \in\left\{0, x^{2}-\frac{1}{x}\right\} for all xR\{0}x \in \mathbb{R} \backslash\{0\}. Proof. P(1,1,1)P(1,1,1) yields f(1)=0f(1)=0. Then, P(x,1,1x)P\left(x, 1, \frac{1}{x}\right) and P(1,x,1x)P\left(1, x, \frac{1}{x}\right) yield f(x)2=x(x+1x+1)(f(x)+f(1x))f(x)^{2}=x\left(x+\frac{1}{x}+1\right)\left(f(x)+f\left(\frac{1}{x}\right)\right) and f(x)f(1x)=(x+1x+1)(f(x)+f(1x))-f(x) f\left(\frac{1}{x}\right)=\left(x+\frac{1}{x}+1\right)\left(f(x)+f\left(\frac{1}{x}\right)\right). Thus, we have f(x)2=xf(x)f(1x)f(x)^{2}=-x f(x) f\left(\frac{1}{x}\right), so we have f(x)=0f(x)=0 or f(1x)=f(x)xf\left(\frac{1}{x}\right)=-\frac{f(x)}{x}. Plugging in the latter into the first equation above gives us f(x)2=x(x+1x+1)(f(x)f(x)x)f(x)^{2}=x\left(x+\frac{1}{x}+1\right)\left(f(x)-\frac{f(x)}{x}\right) which gives us f(x)=0f(x)=0 or f(x)=x21xf(x)=x^{2}-\frac{1}{x}. This proves Lemma 1. Lemma 2. If f(t)=0f(t)=0 for some t1t \neq 1, then we have f(x)=0f(x)=0 for all xx. Proof. P(x,t,1tx)P\left(x, t, \frac{1}{t x}\right) and P(t,x,1tx)P\left(t, x, \frac{1}{t x}\right) give us f(x)2=x(x+1tx+t)(f(x)+f(1tx))f(x)^{2}=x\left(x+\frac{1}{t x}+t\right)\left(f(x)+f\left(\frac{1}{t x}\right)\right) and f(x)f(1tx)=t(x+1tx+t)(f(x)+f(1tx))-f(x) f\left(\frac{1}{t x}\right)=t\left(x+\frac{1}{t x}+t\right)\left(f(x)+f\left(\frac{1}{t x}\right)\right). Thus we have tf(x)2=xf(x)f(1tx)t f(x)^{2}=-x f(x) f\left(\frac{1}{t x}\right), so f(x)=0f(x)=0 or f(1tx)=txf(x)f\left(\frac{1}{t x}\right)=-\frac{t}{x} f(x). Plugging in the latter into the first equation gives us f(x)2=x(x+1tx+t)(f(x)tf(x)x)f(x)^{2}=x\left(x+\frac{1}{t x}+t\right)\left(f(x)-\frac{t f(x)}{x}\right) which gives us either f(x)=0f(x)=0 or f(x)=x(x+t+1tx)(1tx)=x21x(t21t)f(x)=x\left(x+t+\frac{1}{t x}\right)\left(1-\frac{t}{x}\right)=x^{2}-\frac{1}{x}-\left(t^{2}-\frac{1}{t}\right). Note that since the ladder expression doesn't equal x21xx^{2}-\frac{1}{x}, since t1t \neq 1, we must have that f(x)=0f(x)=0. Thus, we have proved lemma 2. Combining these lemmas finishes the problem.

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.