MPOTD Problem of the Day #405: Funny Functions modied

Function f is dened such that f (x2 y 2 ) = (x y ) f (x) + f (y ) for all real x and y . If f (1) = 2012, nd f (2012). The modication to this problem is that I require f to be continuous.

Note that (x y ) f (x) + f (y ) = 0 and f (x2 y 2 ) = f (0) if x = y , so f (0) = 0 since f is a function1 . We also have that f is odd since f ((x2 y 2 )) = f (y 2 x2 ) = (y x) f (y ) + f (x) = = (x y ) f (x) + f (y ) = f (x2 y 2 ) . Now f (x2 0) = (x 0)(f (x) f (0)) = xf (x) . So for positive x we have f ( x) = Writing xf ( x) .

x = x1/2 and using this property recursively, we see that

1 1 1

f (x) = x1/2 f (x1/2 ) = x1/2 x1/4 f (x1/4 ) = x 2 + 4 + 8 f (x1/8 ) = = = {n 1} = x

n 1 k=1 2k

f x 2n

f C

x1 f (x0 ) = xf (1) , if x = 0 ,

but this holds for x = 0 too since 0f (1) = 0 = f (0). It also holds for negative x, since f is odd. f (x) = f (1)x , a pure rst-order polynomial. So if f (1) = 2012 then f (2012) = 20122 .

1 Meaning

that there is now ambiguity arising from the case x = y .