On the \(3x+1\) problem (Q5916473)

Let \((m_ n)\), \(n=0,1,2,...\), be a sequence of positive integers defined by \(m_ 0=m\) and, for \(n>0\), \(m_{n+1}=m_ n/2\) if \(m_ n\) is even and \(m_{n+1}=(3m_ n+1)/2\) if \(m_ n\) is odd. An old conjecture asserts that for any m there is a natural number n such that \(m_ n=1\). The author proves the following theorem: Let \(N_ n=\{1,2,3,...,2^ n\}\) and let s be an integer with \(s>10\). If \(q_ s(n)\) is the cardinality of the set \(Q_ s(n)=\{n\in N_ n:\) \(m_ n<(s/(1+s))^ nm,\) or \(m_ j\leq 2\) for some \(j<n\}\), then \(q_ s(n)/2^ n\to 1\) as \(n\to \infty\).