From wikipedia's article on Lambda calculus: "..in other words, f must expand to g(f). This call to g will then expand to the above factorial function and calc

From wikipedia's article on Lambda calculus: "..in other words, f must expand to g(f). This call to g will then expand to the above factorial function and calculate down to another level of recursion. In that expansion the function f will appear again, and will again expand to g(f) and continue the recursion. This kind of function, where f = g(f), is called a fixed-point of g, and it turns out that it can be implemented in the lambda calculus using what is known as the paradoxical operator or fixed-point operator and is represented as Y -- the Y combinator."