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Algebra Difficulty 7.5 National olympiad, round 2 Find the answer

Find all continuous functions f:RRf: \mathbb{R} \rightarrow \mathbb{R} such that f(x)f(y)f(x)-f(y) is rational for all reals xx and yy such that xyx-y is rational.

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

Solution

We prove that f(x)=ax+bf(x)=a x+b where aQa \in \mathbb{Q} and bRb \in \mathbb{R}. These functions obviously satisfy the conditions. Suppose that a function f(x)f(x) fulfills the required properties. For an arbitrary rational qq, consider the function gq(x)=f(x+q)f(x)g_{q}(x)=f(x+q)-f(x). This is a continuous function which attains only rational values, therefore gqg_{q} is constant. Set a=f(1)f(0)a=f(1)-f(0) and b=f(0)b=f(0). Let nn be an arbitrary positive integer and let r=f(1/n)f(0)r=f(1 / n)-f(0). Since f(x+1/n)f(x)=f(1/n)f(0)=rf(x+1 / n)-f(x)=f(1 / n)-f(0)=r for all xx, we have f(k/n)f(0)=(f(1/n)f(0))+(f(2/n)f(1/n))++(f(k/n)f((k1)/n)=krf(k / n)-f(0)=(f(1 / n)-f(0))+(f(2 / n)-f(1 / n))+\ldots+(f(k / n)-f((k-1) / n)=k r and f(k/n)f(0)=(f(0)f(1/n))(f(1/n)f(2/n))(f((k1)/n)f(k/n)=krf(-k / n)-f(0)=-(f(0)-f(-1 / n))-(f(-1 / n)-f(-2 / n))-\ldots-(f(-(k-1) / n)-f(-k / n)=-k r for k1k \geq 1. In the case k=nk=n we get a=f(1)f(0)=nra=f(1)-f(0)=n r, so r=a/nr=a / n. Hence, f(k/n)f(0)=kr=ak/nf(k / n)-f(0)=k r=a k / n and then f(k/n)=ak/n+bf(k / n)=a \cdot k / n+b for all integers kk and n>0n>0. So, we have f(x)=ax+bf(x)=a x+b for all rational xx. Since the function ff is continuous and the rational numbers form a dense subset of R\mathbb{R}, the same holds for all real xx.

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