The Collatz conjecture or 3x + 1 problem in mathematics asks whether repeating
two simple arithmetic operations will eventually transform every positive integer into one.
It concerns sequences of integers in which each term is obtained from the previous term 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 1.
The conjecture is that these sequences always reach 1,no matter which positive integer is chosen to start the sequence .
I have written a simple python programme to compute number of cylces (shortcut form) needed for particular number before reducing to 1.
Many renowned mathematicians Lothar Collatz ,Paul Erdös , Terence Tao etc . worked on this conjecture.But today 's
mathematics is incapable of proofing such conjectures . Many super computers imployed but mathematicians are not satisfied
with brute force computer proofs.
Ref:- Wikipedia