Teaching the computer how to discover(!) and then prove(!!) (all by itself(!!!)) analogues of Collatz's notorious 3x + 1 conjecture

DOI10.1080/10236190902953789MaRDI QIDQ2997148zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Doron Zeilberger

Publication date 6 May 2011

Published in Journal of Difference Equations and Applications (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/0903.4050

zbMATH Keywords

Collatz conjecturecomputer proof

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Recurrences (11B37) Special sequences and polynomials (11B83) Symbolic computation and algebraic computation (68W30)

Abstract: Paul Erdos claimed that mathematics is not yet ready to settle the 3x+1 conjecture. I agree, but very soon it will be! With the exponential growth of computer-generated mathematics, we (or rather our silicon brethrern) would have a shot at it. Of course, not by number crunching, but by symbol crunching and automatic deduction. In the present article, I taught my computer how to use the brilliant ideas of four human beings (Amal Amleh, Ed Grove, Candy Kent, and Gerry Ladas) to prove two-dimensional analogs of this notorious conjecture. Once programmed (using my Maple package LADAS) it reproduced their ten theorems, and generated 134 new ones, complete with proofs. All by itself! I believe that the proof of the original 3x+1 conjecture would be in the same vein, but one would need a couple of extra human ideas, and better computers.

Recommendations

• About the Collatz conjecture
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3957204
• The Collatz problem
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3910471
• The ultimate challenge. The \(3x+1\) problem
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 4162966
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 5885061
• On Unsettleable Arithmetical Problems
• Some natural generalizations of the Collatz problem

Cites work

• On some difference equations with eventually periodic solutions
• Open problems and conjectures
• The 3x + 1 Problem and Its Generalizations

Cited in

(2)

• Density Bounds for the 3x + 1 Problem. I. Tree-Search Method
• Half an Induction Proof of the Collatz Conjecture

Describes a project that uses

Uses Software

• LADAS
• COLLATZ

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