Monday, September 5, 2016

real analysis - I need to find all functions f:mathbbRrightarrowmathbbR which are continuous and satisfy f(x+y)=f(x)+f(y)

I need to find all functions f:RR such that f(x+y)=f(x)+f(y). I know that there are other questions that are asking the same thing, but I'm trying to figure this out by myself as best as possible. Here is how I started out:



Try out some cases:



x=0:
f(0+y)=f(0)+f(y)f(y)=f(0)+f(y)0=f(0)
The same result is for when y=0



x=y:

f(y+y)=f(y)+f(y)f(0)=f(y)+f(y)0=f(y)+f(y)f(y)=f(y)
I want to extend the result of setting x=y to numbers other that 1, perhaps all real numbers or all rational numbers. I got a little help from reading other solutions on the next part:



Let q=1+1+1+...+1. Then
f(qx)=f((1+1+...+1)x)=f(x+x+...+x)=f(x)+f(x)+...+f(x)=qf(x)
I understood this part, but I don't understand why this helps me find all the functions that satisfy the requirement that f(x+y)=f(x)+f(y), but here is how I went on:



Thus
f(qx)=qf(x) and it should follow that
f(1qx)=1qf(x) where q0, then it further follows that

f(pqx)=pqf(x) where pq is rational, and lastly it further follows that
f(ax)=af(x) where a is real. Thus functions of the form f(ax) where a is real satisfies the requirement of f(x+y)=f(x)+f(y).



I don't know how much of what I did is correct\incorrect, and any help would be greatly appreciated. Also is there any way that I can say that functions of the form f(ax) where a is real are the only functions that satisfy the requirement of f(x+y)=f(x)+f(y)? Or do other solutions exist?



Again, thanks a lot for any help! (Hints would be appreciated, I'll really try to understand the hints!)

No comments:

Post a Comment

analysis - Injection, making bijection

I have injection f:AB and I want to get bijection. Can I just resting codomain to f(A)? I know that every function i...