• Bulletin of the Korean Mathematical Society
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.263-273
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• 2013

A mean-value result, saying that the difference quotient of a differentiable function in a real interval is a mean value of its derivatives at the endpoints of the interval, leads to the functional equation $$\frac{f(x)-F(y)}{x-y}=M(g(x),\;G(y)),\;x{\neq}y$$, where M is a given mean and $f$, F, $g$, G are the unknown functions. Solving this equation for the arithmetic, geometric and harmonic means, we obtain, respectively, characterizations of square polynomials, homographic and square-root functions. A new criterion of the monotonicity of a real function is presented.