
The ProblemConsider the following algorithm:
1. input n 2. print n
3. if n = 1 then STOP
4. if n is odd then n = 3*n+1
5. else n = n/2
6. GOTO 2
Given the input 22, the following sequence of numbers will be printed 22 11 34 17 52 26 13 40 20 10 5 16 8 4 2 1
It is conjectured that the algorithm above will terminate (when a 1 is printed) for any integral input value. Despite the simplicity of the algorithm, it is unknown whether this conjecture is true. It has been verified,...