Re:Computer scientists attempt to corner the Collatz conjecture
by throwaway357920 on Friday August 28, 2020 @10:16AM
(#24305098)
>Claim: there are no numbers larger than 100,000,000,000,000,000.
Re:Computer scientists attempt to corner the Collatz conjecture
by brundolf on Friday August 28, 2020 @10:40AM
(#24305406)
> I don't mean to be rude
Well that's how it comes off. Obviously I didn't think I'd made some breakthrough in five minutes with some JavaScript, and obviously I know that the formal proof is the important thing. I was just poking at the phenomenon and expressing my curiosity. There's no need to be so eager to jump in and shut that down.
That's the only thing that actually matters. You've demonstrated something analogous to the following: "Claim: there are no numbers larger than 100,000,000,000,000,000." You've then gone and checked all the numbers from 1 to 10 million, concluded that it's true, and then just say that we're missing a formal proof. I don't mean to be rude, but from an actual mathematical point of view, you've basically demonstrated nothing.
10 million is mindboggling tiny when it comes to all the numbers. Consider this counterexample to Polya's conjecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQCUPQdi6DY
Or so many other examples: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/514/conjectures-tha...