Iterated function: Difference between revisions

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Some formulas for fractional iteration: incorporated subexample into primary example and renumbered, to avoid confusion, as just witnessed.
top: Rewrote nonsense in lead: no function is obtained by iterating *itself* and infinite iteration does not produce a function. Also removed the incomprehensible and unsourcable term "splinter".
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In [[mathematics]], an '''iterated function''' is a function ''X → X'' (that is, a function from some set ''X'' to itself) which is obtained by [[function composition|composedcomposing]] withanother itself, possiblyfunction ''[[ad infinitum]]f'' : ''X → X'', inwith itself a certain nober of times. The process of repeatedly applying the same function is called [[iteration]]. In this process, starting from some initial number, the result of applying a given function is fed again in the function as input, and this process is repeated. The sequence of functions that is obtained from this process is called the ''splinter'' or the discrete part of the iteration [[Orbit (dynamics)|orbit]].
 
Iterated functions are objects of study in [[computer science]], [[fractals]], [[dynamical system]]s, mathematics and [[renormalization group]] physics.