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Ukrajina 2008

Ukraine 2008 algebra

Problem

Find all the functions so that is true for any real numbers and .
Solution
Let's make substitution where is an arbitrary real number. We find that . We can see that the left side of the equation has not changed while a minus sign appeared on its right side. Thus for all and the following equation should be true: , which implies that for all . Let's make another substitution , . We find: . As , . Evidently, the identically zero function fulfills the condition.
Final answer
f(x) = 0 for all real x

Techniques

Functional Equations