A Classic Functional Equation

Algebra Level 5

What can we say about the cardinality of the set of functions F : R 2 R , F:\mathbb{R}^2\rightarrow \mathbb{R}, satisfying the following three conditions?

i) F ( x , y ) F ( y , z ) = F ( x , z ) , F(x,y)F(y, z)=F(x, z), for all real numbers x , x, y , y, and z z

ii) The cardinality of the set { F ( x , y ) x , y R } \{F(x, y) | x, y \in \mathbb{R}\} is exactly equal to 2.

iii) The function F F has a value different from 1 and -1.

0 Greater than 0 and less than 100 Finite and greater than or equal to 100 Countable Infinite Uncountable Infinite

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2 solutions

Arturo Presa
Aug 17, 2020

One of the possible solutions of the given functional equation is the function defined by F ( x , y ) 0 , F(x, y)\equiv 0, but in this case, the range of F F would contain exactly one number. If there is a pair of real numbers ( a , b ) , (a, b), such that F ( a , b ) = 0 , F(a, b)=0, then we can prove that F = 0 F=0 because F ( x , y ) = F ( x , a ) F ( a , y ) = F ( x , a ) F ( a , b ) F ( b , y ) = 0 , F(x, y)=F(x, a)F(a, y)=F(x, a)F(a,b)F(b,y)=0, and again the cardinality of the range of the function F F would be one.

So, for a function F F to satisfy the two given conditions, F ( x , y ) 0 F(x, y) \neq 0 for all real numbers x , x, and y . y. Now, assume that F F is different from 0 and satisfies the conditions i) and ii). Then using condition i) with z = 0 , z=0, we obtain that F ( x , y ) = F ( x , 0 ) F ( y , 0 ) ( ) F(x, y)=\frac{F(x, 0)}{F(y, 0)}\quad\quad (*) Using ii) the number of different possible values of F ( x , 0 ) F(x, 0) must be one or two. If the number of values of the function F ( x , 0 ) F(x, 0) was one then according to (*) the range of F F would contain only one number and this would contradict ii). In the case, that F ( x , 0 ) F(x, 0) had two values, we have two possibilities: the values are 1 and -1, or at least one of the two values is different from 1 and -1. The first situation would contradict the condition iii) because the function F ( x , y ) F(x, y) would have only two possible values, 1 or -1. Then let us assume that F ( x , 0 ) F(x, 0) has two different values a a and b b where at least one of them is different from 1 and -1. This also leads to a contradiction because the range of F F would contain the set { a , b , 1 , a b , b a } \{a, b, 1, \frac{a}{b}, \frac{b}{a}\} that has at least cardinality 3.

Then there is no function F F satisfying the conditions i) and ii). Therefore the answer to the question is 0 . \boxed{0}.

Kushal Dey
Jan 15, 2021

In the first condition, since we are free to choose any values of x,y,z, we can put x=y to get F(x,x)F(x,z)=F(x,z) => F(x,z)(F(x,x)-1)=0, for all reals x and z. Thus we have 2 cases...
CASE-1: When F(x,z)=0, here condition 1 and 3 are satisfied but not condition 2.
CASE-2: When F(x,x)=1, Condition 3 is not yet completely violated, so we may proceed and see what happens. Using first condition again and putting x=z, we get F(x,y)F(y,x)=F(x,x)=1. Now F(x,y) has to have a value different from 1 to sarisfy condition 3. However if that's the case then F(x,y)=a and F(y,x)=1/a, for non-zero real a, but then if a and 1/a are distinct then condition 2 is violated. Thus a=1/a => a²=1 => a=-1(since we argued earlier a cannot be 1), but now condition 3 is violated.
In both cases, we couldn't get any desirable F(x,y), thus there's no solution to our given conditions which mskes our answer 0.


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