Pick any number. If that number is even, divide it by 2. If it's odd, multiply it by 3 and add 1. Now repeat the process with your new number. If you keep going, you'll eventually end up at 1. Every time.
Mathematicians have tried millions of numbers and they've never found a single one that didn't end up at 1 eventually. The thing is, they've never been able to prove that there isn't a special number out there that never leads to 1. It's possible that there's some really big number that goes to infinity instead, or maybe a number that gets stuck in a loop and never reaches 1. But no one has ever been able to prove that for certain.
Answers
Your problem statement is a small mess! ;-)
Suppose we take you literally, and take 1 as the “any number”. And then we divide by 2 ; the result is 1/2 , one-half. You now tell us what to do (multiply by 3 ) if the result is even, but 1/2 isn’t even; and what to do (add 1 ) if it’s odd; but 1/2 isn’t odd either! So we have no instructions for further progress, and are left with the result 1/2 . But you told us we’d have the result 1 . Not true, is it?
The problem is that you have mis-stated a very famous problem, called the Collatz Conjecture. And the error was simple, but deadly! Your punctuation is in the wrong places! You should have written:
“Take any number, and divide it by 2 if it’s even; then multiply by 3 [and] add 1 if it’s odd. Repeat … ”
Step-by-step explanation:
this is ur answer to the question mate
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