### Instruction:
Let $f(x)=|2\{x\}-1|$ where $\{x\}$ denotes the fractional part of $x$. The number $n$ is the smallest positive integer such that the equation \[nf(xf(x))=x\]has at least $2012$ real solutions. What is $n$?

Note: the fractional part of $x$ is a real number $y=\{x\}$ such that $0\le y<1$ and $x-y$ is an integer.

### Response:

The graph of $y = f(x)$ is shown below.

[asy]
unitsize(1.5 cm);

int i;

draw((0,0)--(0,3));
draw((0,0)--(4,0));
draw((0,3)--(0.5,0)--(1,3)--(1.5,0)--(2,3)--(2.5,0)--(3,3)--(3.5,0)--(4,3));

for (i = 0; i <= 8; ++i) {
  draw((i/2,0.1)--(i/2,-0.1));
}

label("$x$", (4,0), E);
label("$y$", (0,3), N);
label("$0$", (0,-0.1), S);
label("$\frac{1}{2}$", (1/2,-0.1), S);
label("$1$", (1,-0.1), S);
label("$\frac{3}{2}$", (3/2,-0.1), S);
label("$2$", (2,-0.1), S);
label("$\frac{5}{2}$", (5/2,-0.1), S);
label("$3$", (3,-0.1), S);
label("$\frac{7}{2}$", (7/2,-0.1), S);
label("$4$", (4,-0.1), S);
label("$0$", (0,0), W);
label("$1$", (0,3), W);
[/asy]

In particular, $0 \le f(x) \le 1$ for all $x.$  So,
\[0 \le nf(xf(x)) \le n,\]which means that all solutions to $nf(xf(x)) = x$ lie in the interval $[0,n].$

Let $a$ be an integer such that $0 \le a \le n - 1.$  Suppose $a \le x < a + \frac{1}{2}.$  Then
\[f(x) = |2 \{x\} - 1| = |2(x - a) - 1| = 1 + 2a - 2x.\]Let
\[g(x) = xf(x) = x(1 + 2a - 2x).\]Thus, we want to find the solutions to $f(g(x)) = \frac{x}{n}.$

If $a = 0,$ then
\[g(x) = x(1 - 2x),\]which satisfies $0 \le g(x) \le \frac{1}{8}$ for $0 \le x < \frac{1}{2}.$  Then
\[f(g(x)) = 1 - 2g(x) = 4x^2 - 2x + 1.\]We can check that
\[\frac{3}{4} \le 4x^2 - 2x + 1 \le 1\]for $0 \le x < \frac{1}{2}.$  But $\frac{x}{n} \le \frac{1}{2},$ so there no solutions in this case.

Otherwise, $a \ge 1.$  Suppose $a \le x < y < a + \frac{1}{2}.$  We claim that $g(x) > g(y).$  This inequality is equivalent to
\[x(1 + 2a - 2x) > y(1 + 2a - 2y),\]which in turn is equivalent to $(y - x)(2x + 2y - 2a - 1) > 0.$  Since $2x + 2y - 2a - 1 > 2a - 1 \ge 1,$ the claim $g(x) > g(y)$ is established.

This means that $g(x)$ is strictly decreasing on the interval $a \le x < a + \frac{1}{2},$ so it maps the interval $\left[ a, a + \frac{1}{2} \right)$ bijectively to the interval $(0,a].$  This means that $f(g(x))$ oscillates between 0 and 1 $2a$ times, so the line $y = \frac{x}{n}$ intersects this graph $2a$ times.

Now suppose $a + \frac{1}{2} \le x < a.$  Then
\[f(x) = |2\{x\} - 1| = |2(x - a) - 1| = 2x - 2a - 1.\]Let
\[g(x) = xf(x) = x(2x - 2a - 1).\]We can similarly establish that $g(x)$ is strictly increasing for $a + \frac{1}{2} \le x < a,$ so it maps the interval $\left[ a + \frac{1}{2}, a \right)$ bijectively to the interval $[0, a + 1).$  This means that $f(g(x))$ oscillates between 0 and 1 $2a + 2$ times, so the line $y = \frac{x}{n}$ intersects this graph $2a + 2$ times.

Therefore, the total number of solutions is
\[\sum_{a = 0}^{n - 1} (2a + 2a + 2) = 2 \sum_{a = 0}^{n - 1} (2a + 1) = 2n^2.\]Finally, the smallest such $n$ such that $2n^2 \ge 2012$ is $n = 32.$