Iterated Function - Definition

Definition

The formal definition of an iterated function on a set X follows.

Let X be a set and f: X → X be a function.

Define f n as the n-th iterate of f, where n is a non-negative integer, by:

and

where idX is the identity function on X and denotes function composition; that is, .

Because the notation f n may refer to both iteration (composition) of the function f and exponentiation of the function f, some mathematicians choose to write f °n for the n-th iterate of the function f.

Read more about this topic:  Iterated Function

Famous quotes containing the word definition:

    “Scientific method is the way to truth, but it affords, even in
    principle, no unique definition of truth. Any so-called pragmatic
    definition of truth is doomed to failure equally.”
    —Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)

    “Although there is no universal agreement as to a definition of life, its biological manifestations are generally considered to be organization, metabolism, growth, irritability, adaptation, and reproduction.”
    —The Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition, the first sentence of the article on “life” (based on wording in the First Edition, 1935)

    “One definition of man is “an intelligence served by organs.””
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)