Question

Given that f(a+b)= f(a) + f(b) and f(x) is always positive, what os the value of f(0)?

Answer 1

This is a strange question, and f(x) may not even exist. Why do I say that? Well..

[1] We know that f(a+b) = f(a) + f(b). Therefore, f(0+0) = f(0) + f(0). In other words, f(0) = f(0) + f(0). Subtracting, we see, f(0) - f(0) = f(0) or 0 = f(0).

[2] So, what's the problem? We found the answer, f(0) = 0, right? Maybe, but the second rule says that f(x) is always positive. However, f(0) = 0 is not positive!

Since there is a contradiction, we must either conclude that the single value f(0) does not exist, or that the entire function f(x) does not exist.

To fix this, we could instead say that "f(x) is always nonnegative" and then we would be safe.