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U2.A1 Sequences and Series ENG. Collatz Conjecture. Answers

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10 views2 pages

U2.A1 Sequences and Series ENG. Collatz Conjecture. Answers

Uploaded by

José Ruiz
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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U2.

SEQUENCES AND SERIES


The Collatz Conjecture
An investigation. Answer

Approaching the Collatz Conjecture

The Collatz Conjecture, also known as the 3n + 1 Conjecture, was stated by Lothar
Collatz in 1937, two years after receiving his doctorate. To date, it has not been solved.
This is why it is a conjecture, that is, a guess about something based on how it seems and
not based on proof.
The conjecture refers to a property of the so called Syracuse sequences.

The Syracuse sequence of a positive integer x, is the sequence whose rst term is x and
the rest of the terms are obtained as follows:
• If the previous term is even, the next term is one half of the previous term;
• If the previous term is odd, the next term is 3 times the previous term plus one.

1. Write the recursive formula for the Syracuse sequence and the rst seventeen
terms of the Syracuse sequences starting with u1 = 12, u1 = 7 and u1 = 13
The recursive formula of a Syracuse sequence is:

u1 = 12
un
un+1 = 2
, i f un is even
un+1 = 3un + 1, i f un is od d

The following table presents the sequence starting with u1 = 12 for the rst 17 terms

n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
un 12 6 3 10 5 16 8 4 2 1 4 2 1 4 2 1 4

The following table presents the sequence starting with u1 = 7 for the rst 17 terms

n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
un 7 22 11 34 17 52 26 13 40 20 10 5 16 8 4 2 1

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U2. Sequences and Series. The Collatz Conjecture Prepared by Alejandro Díaz Garreta
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The following table presents the sequence starting with u1 = 13 for the rst 17 terms

n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
un 13 40 20 10 5 16 8 4 2 1 4 2 1 4 2 1 4

2. Describe your ndings and try to explain why this sequence is a particular one.
Based on the tables presented above, we can make the following observations:

• The sequence starting with u1 = 12 shows a clear pattern: the terms 1,4,2 are repeated
starting in the 10th-term.

• The sequence starting with u1 = 7 also shows a similar pattern: when we arrive to the
17th-term the sequence repeats again and again with the terms 1,4,2.
• The same applies to the sequences starting with u1 = 13 . This time the 1,4,2 terms
start with the 10th-term.
• This observations make us propose the following hypothesis: all Syracuse sequences
will at some point repeat the same 1,4,2 pattern.

In fact the Collatz Conjecture states that no matter what value of u1 , the
sequence will always reach 1
As of 2020, the conjecture has been checked by computer for all starting values up
to 268 ≃ 2.95 ⋅ 10 20 . This computer evidence is not a proof that the conjecture is
true. It only shows that the conjecture is true for 268 di erent numbers.
• We may also think of dividing the sequence is two sub-sequences described by two
other recursive formulas: a formule describing a geometric sequence, and a formula
describing an arithmetic sequence:
un
geometric: un+1 =
2
arithmetic: un+1 = 3un + 1

3. Find a general rule that veri es each one of the sequences.

Sequence starting with u1 = 12


….

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U2. Sequences and Series. The Collatz Conjecture Prepared by Alejandro Díaz Garreta
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