Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.0 AIME, harder Prove it Romania

A quadratic function ff sends any interval II of length 1 to an interval f(I)f(I) of length at least 1.
Prove that for any interval JJ of length 2, the length of the interval f(J)f(J) is at least 4.

Solution

If f(x)=ax2+bx+cf(x) = ax^2 + bx + c and v=−b/2av = -b/2a is the abscissa of parabola's vertex, then, taking I=[v−1/2,v+1/2]I = [v - 1/2, v + 1/2], the interval f(I)f(I) has length ∣a∣/4|a|/4, hence ∣a∣≥4|a| \ge 4.

Now, taking an interval JJ of length 2, one can find x,y∈Jx, y \in J such that x−y=1x - y = 1 and v∉(y,x)v \notin (y, x).
We have ∣f(x)−f(y)∣=∣a(x−y)(x+y+ba)∣≥4∣x+y−2v∣≥4|f(x) - f(y)| = |a(x - y)(x + y + \frac{b}{a})| \ge 4|x + y - 2v| \ge 4, therefore f(J)f(J) contains two points at least 4 units apart, whence the conclusion.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.