Problem

Source: American Mathematical Monthly

Tags: function, algebra



Let be three positive integers $ a,b,c $ and a function $ f:\mathbb{N}\longrightarrow\mathbb{N} $ defined as $$ f(n)=\left\{ \begin{matrix} n-a, & n>c\\ f\left( f(n+b) \right) ,& n\le c \end{matrix} \right. . $$Determine the number of fixed points this function has.