ON A FUNCTIONAL EQUATION BASED

UPON A RESULT OF GASPARD MONGE

C. Alsina, M. Sablik, J. Sikorska

Abstract. We present and solve completely a func-

tional equation motivated by a classical result of Gas-
pard Monge.

1. INTRODUCTION
Gaspard Monge (1746-1818) was a great geometer. His ideas and re-
sults on Descriptive Geometry are, still today, a rigourous way to deal with
graphical constructions. Our aim in this paper is to focus our attention on
a property discovered by Monge concerning some triangles associated to any
straight line of positive slope (in the ¯rst quadrant). Precisely, let 0 denote
the origin of a cartesian reference in the plane and let A = (A1 ; A2 ) and
B = (B1 ; B2 ) with midpoint M (see ¯gure 1). Then Monge noted that the
areas S; S1 and S2 of the triangles 0AB, A1 MB1 and A2M B2, respectively,
satisfy the relation jS1 ¡ S2j = S.

Figures 1 and 2

1
 Based upon this equality we want to examine for which strictly increas-
ing functions we can assure a similar result. Figure 1 suggests a possible
generalization shown in Figure 2.
Of course when f is an a±ne function then ¯gure 2 reduces to ¯gure 1,
i.e., to Monge's case. Following the notations of ¯gure 2, Monge's result may
be stated as follows, for any x · y,
¯ µ ¶ ¯ Z y
¯1 ¯
¯ (y ¡ x)f x + y ¡ 1 (f (y) ¡ f(x)) x + y ¯ = 1 1
f(t)dt+ xf(x)¡ yf (y)
¯2 2 2 2 ¯ 2 2
x
(1)
Our chief concern in this paper is to solve (1), showing that only a±ne
functions may present this behaviour. Note that the formulation of (1) forces
that the expression on the right hand side is non-negative, i.e., that we are
in the situation where f(y)
y x · f(x), i.e., f (t)=t is non-increasing. But as we
will see in our arguments this fact will be derived from (1).

2. MAIN RESULT
We begin by considering a lemma which will be of interest in the next
theorem.

LEMMA 1. Let f be a function from R+ into R+ such that f (t)=t is non-

increasing on (0; 1). Then, for all x · y we have
µ ¶
x+y x+y
(f(y) ¡ f(x)) · (y ¡ x)f : (3)
2 2

Proof. Obviously (3) holds for x = y. So let us consider the case 0 < x < y
which yields f (x)
x
¸ f (y)
y
, i.e., yf (x) ¸ xf(y).
Therefore, since x < x+y 2 < y,

x +y x+y 1 x+y 1
(f (y) ¡ f(x)) = ¢ (yf (y) ¡ yf(x)) · (yf (y) ¡ xf (y))
2 2 y 2 y
x+y 1 x +y f (y)
= ¢ (y ¡ x)f(y) = (y ¡ x)
2 y 2 y
¡ x+y ¢ µ ¶
x+y f 2 x +y
· (y ¡ x) x+y = (y ¡ x)f :
2 2
2

2
 ¤
Now we can show the following result concerning (1):

THEOREM 1. A strictly increasing function f from R+ into R+ satis¯es (1)

if and only if f(x) = ax + b, for some arbitrary constants a and b such that
a > 0 and b ¸ 0.

Proof. Let us assume that f satis¯es (1), i.e., for x · y

¯ µ ¶ ¯ Z y
¯ x + y x + y ¯
¯ (y ¡ x)f ¡ (f (y) ¡ f(x))¯¯ = 2 f(t)dt + xf (x) ¡ yf (y):
¯ 2 2 x
(1)
Since f is strictly increasing when y tends to x from the right we have
µ ¶
x+y
lim f = lim f (y) = f(x+)
y!x+ 2 y!x+

so taking limits in (1) when y ! x+ we obtain

0 · xjf (x+) ¡ f (x)j = x(f(x) ¡ f(x+));

i.e., f (x+) · f(x) and since f (x) · f(x+) we deduce f(x) = f(x+). Anal-
ogously, taking limits when x ! y¡ from the left we deduce f(y) = f (y¡).
Therefore f is continuous, and being strictly increasing f (t) is di®erentiable
almost everywhere and the same applies to f(t) ¢ t.
If F (t) denotes a primitive function of f then F is almost everywhere
di®erentiable (F 0 = f) non-decreasing and (absolutely) continuous on R+
and we can write Z y
f(t)dt = F (y) ¡ F (x):
x

Presenting (1) in the form:

¯ µ ¶ ¯
¯ ¡ ¯
¯f x + y
¡
x + y f (y) f(x) ¯ = 2 F (y) ¡ F (x) ¡ yf(y) ¡ xf(x) ;
¯ 2 2 y¡x ¯ y ¡x y¡x

when x tends to y from the left we deduce

0 · jf(y) ¡ yf 0 (y)j = 2f(y) ¡ (yf 0(y) + f(y)) = f(y) ¡ yf 0 (y)

3
so µ ¶
d f(y) yf 0 (y) ¡ f(y)
= · 0;
dy y y2
and f(y)=y is non-increasing on (0; 1). By virtue of Lemma 1, (3) holds, so
we can omit the absolute value in (1) and present our equation in the form:
µ ¶
x +y x+y
(y ¡ x)f ¡ (f(y) ¡ f (x)) = 2(F (y) ¡ F (x)) + xf (x) ¡ yf(y);
2 2
or equivalently
· µ ¶ ¸
x+y f (x) + f(y)
2F (y) ¡ 2F (x) = (y ¡ x) f + : (4)
2 2
Since F and f are di®erentiable, taking partial derivatives in (4) we obtain
· µ ¶ ¸ · µ ¶ ¸
x +y f(x) + f (y) 1 0 x+y 1 0
¡2f(x) = ¡ f + + (y ¡ x) f + f (x)
2 2 2 2 2
and
· µ ¶ ¸ · µ ¶ ¸
x+y f (x) + f(y) 1 0 x+y 1 0
2f (y) = f + + (y ¡ x) f + f (y)
2 2 2 2 2
so subtraction of the ¯rst equality from the second one yields
µ ¶
x +y 1
2f(y) + 2f(x) = 2f + f(x) + f(y) + (y ¡ x) (f 0(y) ¡ f 0(x));
2 2
i.e., µ ¶
x +y 1
2f = f(x) + f (y) + (y ¡ x)(f 0(x) ¡ f 0 (y)): (5)
2 2
Fixing x = x0 > 0 into the above equation (5) we immediately see that for
any y in [x0; 1)
f(x0) + f(y) + 12 (y ¡ x0)f 0 (x0 ) ¡ 2f ((x0 + y)=2)
f 0 (y) = ;
(y ¡ x0 )=2
whence f 0 is also di®erentiable in [x0; 1). Since x0 is arbitrary, f 00 exists in
R+ so we can take again partial derivatives in (5) to obtain:
µ ¶
0 x+y 1 1
f = f 0 (x) ¡ (f 0(x) ¡ f 0 (y)) + (y ¡ x)f 00(x);
2 2 2

4
and µ ¶
0 x+y 1 1
f = f 0(y) + (f 0 (x) ¡ f 0 (y)) ¡ (y ¡ x)f 00(y);
2 2 2
i.e., f 00 (x) = ¡f 00 (y) so ¯xing y = x0 we get that f 00 is constant, i.e., f 00 (x) = k
and k = ¡k yields k = 0.
That f (x) = ax + b with a > 0; b ¸ 0. The theorem is proved. ¤

Remark 1. Let us note that one can obtain the same solutions of (4) with no
regularity assumptions on f or F by means of results to be found in (Sablik,
2000), (Sablik, 2004) and (Pawlikowska, 2002). However these general results
are stated in a very general framework of group theory and therefore here we
decided to give a short and direct proof.

Similarly one can consider the functional equation

¯ µ ¶ ¯ Z y
¯1 x + y 1 x + y ¯ 1 1
¯ (y ¡ x)f ¡ (f (y) ¡ f(x)) ¯ = yf(y)¡ xf(x)¡ f(t)dt;
¯2 2 2 2 ¯ 2 2 x
(6)
which is based on the case where the graph of f is below the line
g(t) = (f(y)=y) ¢ t. Then one obtains the following

THEOREM 2. Fixed [a; b] with a > 0, a strictly increasing function f from

[a; b] into R+ such that f(a) > 0, satis¯es (6) if and only if f (x) = mx + n
for some arbitrary constants m; n in R, (m > 0).
In a more general situation if f is a continuous strictly increasing function
from [a; b] into R+ with a > 0 and f(a) > 0 and f can oscillate above and
below the line y(t) = (f (b)=b), then one can consider the sets
½ ¾
f (b)
A(b) := x 2 [a; b] : f(x) ¡ x>0 ;
½ b ¾
f (b)
B(b) := x 2 [a; b] : f(x) ¡ x<0 ;
½ b ¾
f (b)
C (b) := x 2 [a; b] : f(x) ¡ x :
b

A(b) and B(b) are open sets so they can be represented as union of open
intervals. For each of such intervals easier results can be applied and for
C(b) we have the result of Monge. So each consideration leads to a linear

5
function f (x) = mx + n on an interval which together with continuity of f
gives f(x) = f (b)¡f (a)
b¡a (x ¡ a) + f(a).

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author thanks Prof. J. Garcia-Roig his remarks and to Prof. A.
Monreal for making the ¯gures.

REFERENCES

¶ J., 1966, Lectures on Functional Equations and Their Appli-

[1] ACZEL,
cations. Academic Press, New York.

[2] MONGE, G., 1897, Application de l'Analyse a la G¶eom¶etrie. Im-

primerie de H. Perronneau, Paris

[3] MONGE, G., 1996, Geometr¶³a descriptiva. Edici¶on facsimil. Colegio

Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos, Madrid.

[4] I. Pawlikowska, 2002, Charakteryzacja odwzorowa¶ n poprzez twierdzenia

¶ aski.
o warto¶sci ¶sredniej (in Polish), Doctoral thesis, Uniwersytet Sl»

[5] M. Sablik, 2000, Taylor's theorem and functional equations. Aequa-

tiones Math. 60, no. 3, 258{267.

[6] M. Sablik, 2004, Remark to a result of C. Alsina. 42nd ISFE. Aequa-

tiones Math.

C. Alsina M. Sablik and T. Sikorska

Sec. Matemµatiques. ETSAB-UPC, mssablik@us.edu.pl
Diagonal 649, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.
claudio.alsina@upc.es