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| | Idempotent - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
 | | Given a binary operation, an idempotent element (or simply an idempotent) is something that when multiplied by (for a function, composed with) itself, gives itself as a result. |
 | | A unary operation (i.e., a function), is idempotent if, whenever it is applied twice to any element, it gives the same result as if it were applied once. |
 | | In this case, function composition (denoted "o") is a binary operation on X, and a function f : X → X is idempotent as a unary operator if and only if f o f = f, that is, if and only if f is an idempotent element of this binary operation. |
| en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Idempotency (827 words) |
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