Math · 2

What is the status of the Collatz Conjecture as of the early 21st century?

Answer

It remains unproven despite being tested on billions of numbers

The Collatz Conjecture has been verified computationally for an enormous range of starting values, but no general mathematical proof has ever been established. It stands as one of the most famous unsolved problems in mathematics, notable because its rules are simple enough for a child to follow.

💡 Did you know?

The Collatz Conjecture—propose any number, halve if even or triple-and-add-one if odd, repeat—remains unsolved despite its child-simple description.

Other options people guess

  • It was proven true by a computer-assisted proof in 1976
  • It was proven false by a counterexample found in 1998
  • It was formally proven by Grigori Perelman in 2003

Topics

  • collatz-conjecture
  • unsolved-problems
  • number-theory
  • mathematical-history

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