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Function range (Posted on 2020-06-29) Difficulty: 3 of 5
Suppose that f:R→R is a continuous function and satisfies the equation f(x)f(f(x))=1 for all x∈R. Further, if f(1000)=999, find the range of the function f(x).

No Solution Yet Submitted by Danish Ahmed Khan    
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Solution Solution | Comment 1 of 2
Let y be a value in the range of f(x).  Then y*f(y) = 1, which implies f(y)=1/y.  Then f(x) = 1/x for any x falling in the range of f(x).

Let z be a value such that 1/z is in the range of f(x).  Then (1/z)*f(1/z)=1, which implies f(1/z)=z.  Thus, if x falls in the range of f(x) then 1/x will also fall in the range. Notice that this also means if x is not in the range then 1/x is also not in the range.

f(1000)=999 then means 999 is in the range and 1000 is not.  Then the range of f(x) can be expressed as an interval [1/k, k] such that 999<=k<1000.

A variant of this problem is already on Perplexus: A Funny Function.

  Posted by Brian Smith on 2020-07-04 10:31:29
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