Experienced mathematicians warn up-and-comers to stay away from the Collatz conjecture. It’s a siren song, they say: Fall under its trance and you may never do meaningful work again. The Collatz ...

The Collatz conjecture is an unsolved conjecture in mathematics. It is named after Lothar Collatz, who first proposed it in 1937. The conjecture is also known as the 3n + 1 conjecture, as the Ulam ...

Pick a number; if it is even, divide it by 2; if odd, triple it and add 1. Now repeat the process, each time halving or else tripling and adding 1. Here is a surprise: no matter what number you pick, ...

An attempt at tackling the intractable Collatz conjecture is a “noble failure” demonstrating the promise of automated reasoning techniques. The computer scientist Marijn Heule is always on the lookout ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. It's a nice picture and it sure looks like there's some pattern there, but it's not been quantified. So, why do we believe this ...

Disclaimer: The following press release comes to you under an arrangement with AsiaNet. takes no editorial responsibility for the same.) TOKYO, July 7, 2021 /Kyodo JBN-AsiaNet/ -- - Highest Prize for ...

Dec. 1 -- Two years ago the Clay Mathematics Institute near Boston listed seven important questions in mathematics that have never been answered and offered a $1 million reward for the solution of any ...

Seaweed? Worms? Bad hair day? The animation below is a new way to look at the Collatz conjecture, one of the most high-profile open problems in mathematics. The conjecture is easy to explain, given ...