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Print49th Mathematical Olympiad in Ukraine
Ukraine algebra
Problem
Find all functions , mapping the set of integer numbers into itself, such that for all integers and the following equality holds: .
Solution
Put : . If we denote , then we can easily get: , so our sequence is an arithmetic progression, hence , where , .
In the same way, substituting we obtain: . If we denote , then , , and we get: , which implies , where , .
Substituting we get on the one hand that , and on the other hand that , and so or .
Thus, we get the following answers: , . An easy check shows that all such functions satisfy the condition of the problem.
In the same way, substituting we obtain: . If we denote , then , , and we get: , which implies , where , .
Substituting we get on the one hand that , and on the other hand that , and so or .
Thus, we get the following answers: , . An easy check shows that all such functions satisfy the condition of the problem.
Final answer
All solutions are piecewise linear with a common intercept: f(n) = a n + b for n > 0, f(0) = b, and f(n) = c n + b for n < 0, where a, b, c are integers.
Techniques
Functional EquationsRecurrence relations