First, enter in any natural number (whole number greater than 0). - Press up arrow to view the next step of the sequence - Press down arrow to draw the rest of the graph automatically - Press right arrow to view the numbers in the sequence and some info about the graph
If the number is odd, we multiply it by 3 and add 1. If it's even, we divide by 2. By repeating this we create the sequences you'll see in this project. These sequences are interesting because they are so unpredictable, with even adjacent starting numbers following very different paths. Most importantly, the Collatz Conjecture (aka the 3x+1 problem) is a famous unsolved math problem. Here's the question: will all starting numbers eventually follow a path that leads back down into the loop of 4, 2, 1, 4, 2, 1...? Mathematicians don't know. They've tested an insane amount of staring numbers and all were sooner or later reduced down to 1; however, they are still missing absolute proof or disproof. Perhaps there could be some starting number whose path gets stuck in a loop and never goes down to 1, or one whose path continues upward forever towards infinity.
