>>25521358
>explain this for dimwits
take any number
if it's even, dicide it by 2
if it's odd, multiply by 3 and remove 1
you get a new number
do the same operation on new number
if you start with 8 you go
8>4>2>1
if you start with 3 you go
3>10>5>16>8>4>2>1
see how number of steps is higher for 3 than for 8? it is counterintuitive, right? well there seems (So far) to be no rule about how many steps there are based on the starting number
for some numbers the number of steps is just few, for some numbers its in hundreds.
there seems to be no rule why that happens
but if you plot it, there certainly are some patterns
also there is only one loop detected so far 4>2>1>4>2>1 and all other starting numbers go back to this loop
but there is no proof that there is no other loop, and if you allow for negative numbers, there actually start other loops remaining
>Why is this important
as wit other "silly" problems in math, working on that one has helped improve maths in other ways
noone knows if it will ever be solved or be important