Mathematician Terence Tao obtains a significant new result on the Collatz conjecture, one of the easiest mathematical problems to state and most difficult to solve.
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First breakthrough in decades on a seemingly impossible problem
First breakthrough in decades on a seemingly impossible problem
First breakthrough in decades on a seemingly impossible problem
Mathematician Terence Tao obtains a significant new result on the Collatz conjecture, one of the easiest mathematical problems to state and most difficult to solve.
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In the 1930s, the German mathematician Lothar Collatz He observed a curious phenomenon by experimenting with integers. It seemed like a simple property, but the general proof, which would allow us to affirm that all numbers satisfy this property, eluded him. He started spreading the problem among his colleagues, but no one could solve it. In 1950, the city of Cambridge in Massachusetts (USA) hosted the International Congress of Mathematicians, the first after World War II, and Collatz took advantage of the occasion to share the problem among those in attendance. The popularity of the enigma increased, particularly in the United States, where it captivated and defeated entire groups of researchers. This gave rise to a recurring joke, according to which the problem, which became known as Collatz conjecture, was part of a plot to delay American mathematical research. One of the greatest experts on the issue, Jeffrey Lagarias, account that the famous mathematician Paul Erdős declared that “mathematics is not yet ready for such problems.” However, a few months ago, Terence Tao challenged this claim, making the first major breakthrough in decades.