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From: jpl@allegra.UUCP (John P. Linderman)
Newsgroups: net.math
Subject: Re: Puzzle, and a bizarre sequence (the 3n+1 problem)
Message-ID: <2658@allegra.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 2-Aug-84 08:29:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: allegra.2658
Posted: Thu Aug  2 08:29:00 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 3-Aug-84 23:55:38 EDT
References: <1262@nsc.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
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If there is a least integer for which the problem fails to converge,
we can be sure it will be of the form 4n+3.  This is a fairly simple
exercise that I will leave to the reader, with the clue that the
number is necessarily of the form 4n, 4n+1, 4n+2 or 4n+3, and being
the least such number will eliminate the first 3 possibilities.

John P. Linderman  Department of Trivial Observations  allegra!jpl