Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2021/ii/paper-4/32a/a/solution

Order a period-three orbit as . Its images produce two subintervals with covering relations and . Any closed walk in this directed graph gives, by the interval-covering lemma and the intermediate value theorem, a fixed point of the corresponding iterate. Primitive closed walks of every length exist, giving an orbit of every positive period; this is the period-three case of Sharkovsky theorem.

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