Is Tripling Odd Numbers Necessary in the Collatz Conjecture?

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the Collatz conjecture, which states that for any integer, if it is even, divide it by 2, and if it is odd, triple it and add one. The participant questions the necessity of tripling odd numbers, suggesting that omitting this step might yield the same result. However, it is established that the operations described are fundamentally different, and the original process guarantees convergence to 1 after a series of operations.

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Hey, i was reading about the Collatz conjecture, where, if you take a integer, divide it by 2 if its even and triple it then add one if it's odd, and do it over and over again, the result would be one. I was thinking, "wouldnt it have the same effect if you didnt triple odd numbers?" am i wrong?
 
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"the same effect"? What do you mean? What you've just described is clearly different, and obviously converges to 1 (after any two operations, you must have decreased the number you started with, hence it must converge).
 

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