# How do I prove that this piecewise function is injective?

How do I prove that this piecewise function is injective?

The function is $f$ from $\mathbb Z$ to $\mathbb Z$, defined as

$$f(x) = \begin{cases} 3x+1\,\,\,\,, & \text{if x ≥ 0} \\ -3x+2, & \text{if x < 0} \end{cases}$$

Usually I would provide my working, but this time I don't even know how to approach this. (http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~isil/cs311h/lecture-functions-6up.pdf) I am learning using this link but there are no notes on the proof, there are just blank slides.

• In the linked slides the function is specified as being $\mathbb Z\to\mathbb Z$. That's important because then it is injective. – Henrik Jan 9 '17 at 15:24

This function is injective, because it's defined from $\mathbb Z$ to $\mathbb Z$ (as defined in the slides).

Therefore, you can prove that it is injective, e.g. in the following way: suppose you have a value $y$ and need to determine the corresponding $x$. If $y \equiv 1 \mod 3$, it can only be the equal to $f(x)$ if $x = (y-1)/3$. If $y \equiv 2 \mod 3$, it can only be equal to $f(x)$ if $x = -(y-2)/3$.

This is not a rigorous proof, but it gives you a general idea how to construct one.

To prove that this is not injective, you need to only provide one counterexample:

$$f(1)=f(-\frac{2}{3})=4$$

If $x_0>0$ , $x_1 <0$ and $x_0+x_1=1/3$, then

$$f(x_0)=f(x_1).$$

Hence $f$ is very far away from being injective.

After looking at your link we see $f: \mathbb Z \to \mathbb Z$ so you see by Campbells answer it is important to write down the domains too (he considered $f: \mathbb R \to \mathbb R$ where the function is indeed not injective!).

Now assume $f$ is not injective, this means there exists $x,y \in \mathbb Z$ with $f(x)=f(y)$. Since $f$ is strictly monotone on the positive and negative numbers we deduce wlog. $x\leq 0 <y$ (they have different signs).

Hence we have $3|x|+2=3y+1$, so $x=y-\frac{1}{3}$. Assuming $y \in \mathbb Z$ we now see that $x \not\in \mathbb Z$ and hence our counterexample is wrong.

So no such $x$ and $y$ can exist and $f$ is injective.