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.

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