The image of the full interval under the tent map is . Since , this image contains the critical point zero and the right endpoint one; its next image is again . Moreover, any interval with lies inside the image of . Thus the core interval of an expanding tent map is
Every point outside enters after one iterate and then stays there. For there are no points of the domain outside .
To prove interval exactness of a tent-map core, first take a nondegenerate closed interval and put . Each is an interval. If does not straddle zero, the corresponding branch is affine with slope of magnitude , so . If it straddles zero, its image has right endpoint one and
If both and contain zero, then contains , whence . Otherwise at most one of these two steps folds across the critical point. Consequently, unless the full core has already been reached,
Since , indefinite failure to reach would give intervals of unbounded length inside an interval of length . This is impossible, proving . For an interval with open endpoints, apply the argument to any nondegenerate closed subinterval inside it; its image already covers , while the image of the original interval cannot leave .
Now let be any nonempty relatively open subset of and choose a closed nondegenerate . Some maps onto , so there are points with and . Therefore and . The intermediate value theorem yields with . This is a periodic point of , of period dividing . Every such contains one, so the periodic points are dense in the whole core .