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TST

Vietnam algebra

Problem

Given a real number and consider function for all real numbers . Find all functions that satisfy for all real numbers .
Solution
Denote . Clearly, is a bijective because Replacing by in the relation, we have Because is a bijective then there exists a real number that . Replacing by , we get Note that is an injective, it implies that which means On the other hand, because and the equality only happens when , thus

Hence, and replace in the original equation, we get but it is clear that for all , which leads to . Replacing by and for any arbitrary , we obtain Therefore, for all pairs and , we have or is additive. We also have proved that for all real numbers , it implies that for all . By replacing in the original equation, we can find that . Thus, for all real numbers .
Final answer
f(x) = x

Techniques

Injectivity / surjectivity