One-Term Nestedly Recursive Functions


	Recursion relations with a very simple form can lead to surprisingly complex behavior.


	Contributed by: Stephen Wolfram Based on: A live experiment at the 2003 NKS Summer School

The recursion relations are set up so that whenever they sample below

, the

is taken to have value 1.

It is quite common to see a long "transient," with complex behavior, followed by simple, essentially repetitive, behavior thereafter.

is the simplest example that seems never to yield simple behavior.

Functions like these were mentioned in A New Kind of Science, but first studied in detail in Stephen Wolfram's Live Experiment at the opening of the first NKS Summer School, in June 2003.