Complexity Explorer Santa Few Institute

Pertaining to systems that undergo repeated cyclic behaviors, in a continuous system, the period refers to the length of time per full cycle, such as the time it takes for a pendulum to swing back and forth to its original position. For discrete systems such as those usually expressed by recursive equations or computer simulations, the period may be measured by the length of the sequence of repeated states. For example, a system that cycles through  three  values before repeating has a period of three.