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XV OBM

Brazil algebra

Problem

Find a real-valued function on the non-negative reals such that , and for all .
Solution
Let be the interval for . Then the are disjoint and cover the non-negative reals. Also maps onto . Thus is determined by the values it takes on . These can be arbitrary, but the simplest is to take on . Then we get on , on , on and by a simple induction on .
Final answer
One example is: define f(x)=0 for x in [0,1), and for each integer n ≥ 1 define f(x) = 5(3^n − 1)/2 for x in [2^n − 1, 2^{n+1} − 1).

Techniques

Functional Equations