The Simplest Math Problem No One Can Solve - Collatz Conjecture

this is the most dangerous problem in mathematics one that young mathematicians are warned not to waste their time on it's a simple conjecture that not even the world's best mathematicians have been able to solve Paul erush a famous mathematician said mathematics is not yet ripe enough for such questions here's how it works pick a number any number seven good choice okay we're going to apply two rules if the number is odd we multiply by three and add 1 so 3 * 7 is 21 + 1 is 22 if the number is even we divide by two so 22 ID 2 is 11 now we keep applying these two rules 11 is odd so we multiply by 3 33 and add 1 34 even divide by 2 17 odd multiply by 3 51 add 1 52 even divide by 2 26 still even divide by 2 13 odd so we multiply by 3 39 add 1 and that's 40 which is even so we divide by 2 20 IDE by 2 10 IDE by 2 5 odd multiply by 3 15 add 1 16 divide by 2 that's 8 and then 4 2 and 1 now one is odd so we multiply by three and add one which equals four but four goes to two goes to one so we're in a loop and the lowest number is one now the conjecture is this every positive integer if you apply these rules will eventually end up in the 421 Loop this is commonly called the colets conjecture after German mathematician lther collets who may have come up with it in the 1930s but the problem has many origin stories and many names it's also known as the ulam conjecture kakutani's problem the we's conjecture hass's algorithm the Syracuse problem and simply 3 n + 1 why is 3x +1 so famous among professional mathematicians maybe it's not famous but Infamous in the sense that if someone actually admits in public that they're working on it then there's something wrong with them the numbers you get by applying 3x+1 are called Hailstone numbers because they go up and down like hailstones in a thundercloud but eventually they all fall down to one or at least we think they do you can think of the numbers as representing the height above the ground in meters so a number ...