Correct solutions were submitted by Jens Voß, Lisa Schechner, Dan Dima.
It's fun to use a little calculus. Since f is twice
differentiable,

So it is enough to show that
,
or equivalently, f ' ( t + x ) ≤ f ' ( t ) for 0 ≤ x , t
≤ y. By the Mean Value Theorem applied to the differentiable
function f ' we have
f ' ( t + x ) - f ' ( t )
= f '' (c) ∙((t+x)
- t) = f '' (c) ∙ x
≤ 0,
from which the desired property follows.
Note that the result is false without
some restriction on the values of x and y as the function f
(x) = -x2,
with x = -1
= y demonstrates. The result is also false without the assumption
that f (0) = 0 as the function f (x) =
-x2
- 1
with x = 0 = y demonstrates. Finally, the function is only
assumed to be twice differentiable, so power series arguments, though
suggestive, are not wholly valid.
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