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Question 11.43

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TZ
leumasicOfficial

2 months ago

Pick any y>0y>0 and let g(x)=f(xy)g(x)=f(xy). Since f(x)f(x) is differentiable for x>0x>0, then so is g(x)g(x) for x>0x>0, its derivative is

g(x)=f(xy)y=1xyy=1x.g'(x)=f'(xy)y=\frac{1}{xy}y=\frac{1}{x}.

If x=1x=1, then the equality f(xy)=f(x)+f(y)f(xy)=f(x)+f(y) trivially holds as f(1)=0f(1)=0. Otherwise, either x>1x>1 or x<1x<1 and in either case we can apply the Cauchy mean value theorem. For x<1x<1, we have

(f(1)f(x))g(c)=(g(1)g(x))f(c)    f(x)x=f(y)f(xy)x    f(xy)=f(x)+f(y)\begin{align*} \big(f(1)-f(x)\big)g'(c)=\big(g(1)-g(x)\big)f'(c) &\implies -\frac{f(x)}{x} = \frac{f(y)-f(xy)}{x} \\ &\implies f(xy)=f(x)+f(y) \end{align*}

for some c(x,1)c\in(x,1). For x>1x>1 we get the same final equality to hold by applying the Cauchy mean value theorem.

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