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IMC / 2009 / Problems / Day 1, P1

IMC 2009 · Day 1 · P1

easy

Suppose that ff and gg are real-valued functions on the real line and f(r)g(r)f(r) \le g(r) for every rational rr. Does this imply that f(x)g(x)f(x) \le g(x) for every real xx if

a) ff and gg are non-decreasing?

b) ff and gg are continuous?

Solution (official)

a) No. Counter-example: ff and gg can be chosen as the characteristic functions of [3,)[\sqrt{3}, \infty) and (3,)(\sqrt{3}, \infty), respectively.

b) Yes. By the assumptions gfg - f is continuous on the whole real line and nonnegative on the rationals. Since any real number can be obtained as a limit of rational numbers we get that gfg - f is nonnegative on the whole real line.

How the field did

contestants scored
334
average (of 10)
9.28
solved (≥ 80%)
88.0%
near-0 (≤ 10%)
1.8%
discrimination
0.33

Score distribution (field cohort)

Computed on contestants with a meaningful total (field cohort); discrimination is the corrected item–total correlation.

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