Collatz Sequence Calculator (3n + 1 Conjecture)
The Collatz sequence (also called the 3n + 1 problem, the Syracuse problem or the hailstone sequence) is an open problem posed by Lothar Collatz in 1937: starting from any positive integer n, repeatedly apply "even → n/2, odd → 3n+1" and the chain always (conjecturally) reaches 1. Enter a starting integer to see the full chain, total step count, peak value and the split between halvings and 3n+1 steps.
Enter a positive integer n (1 up to about 10¹²).
Total steps
—
Peak value reached
—
Even steps (÷ 2)
—
Odd steps (× 3 + 1)
—
Full sequence
—
Formula
f(n) = n ⁄ 2 (if n is even) f(n) = 3 n + 1 (if n is odd) → iterate f until n = 1
- · The Collatz sequence is nicknamed "hailstone sequence" because numbers rise and fall like hailstones inside a cloud.
- · Step count (total stopping time) is OEIS A006577; peak value is OEIS A025586.
- · As of 2020 every n ≤ 2⁶⁸ has been computer-verified to reach 1 (Barina, J. Supercomput. 2020) — but the conjecture itself is still unproven.
- · A counterexample, if it exists, must either enter a cycle other than {4, 2, 1} or diverge to infinity — neither has ever been observed.
- · Famous examples: n = 27 → 111 steps, peak 9232; n = 97 → 118 steps; n = 871 → 178 steps. The wild irregularity of stopping times across consecutive integers is the core difficulty of the conjecture.
- · Replacing the odd-step rule with 5n + 1 produces known counterexamples (e.g. n = 13 enters a cycle that never reaches 1), which is one reason the specific "3n + 1" form is interesting.
Frequently asked
Has anyone actually proved the Collatz conjecture?
As of 2024, no. Lothar Collatz posed it in 1937, and Paul Erdős famously said "mathematics is not yet ready for such problems" and offered $500 for a proof. The strongest partial result is by Terence Tao (2019): Collatz orbits "almost surely attain almost bounded values" — i.e. probabilistic eventual descent, not a complete proof. Other milestones: (1) Conway (1972) showed a generalised Collatz function is undecidable; (2) Eliahou (1993) proved any non-trivial cycle must have length ≥ 17 087 915; (3) Barina (2020) extended the brute-force verification to 2⁶⁸ ≈ 2.95 × 10²⁰; (4) Krasikov & Lagarias (2003) established a density lower bound of 0.84 n^0.84 for integers known to reach 1. A full proof remains a millennium-style open problem.
If computers have already verified so many integers, why does it still count as unproven?
A mathematical proof must hold for every one of the infinitely many positive integers — examples cannot substitute. Verifying 2⁶⁸ ≈ 10²⁰ values is excellent practical evidence but still misses infinitely many larger integers. History shows conjectures that survived massive numerical support and then collapsed: Pólya's conjecture held for the first 9.06 × 10⁵² integers before a counterexample at 906 150 257 was found in 1962; the location of the first π(x) > Li(x) crossover was once estimated around 10^10^10^34 (Skewes number) and later refined to 1.397 × 10³¹⁶. Holding up to 10²⁰ is no guarantee it holds at 10¹⁰⁰⁰. Mathematicians need a generic argument valid for all n, not a per-integer computation.
Why "hailstone sequence" — what does a typical Collatz trajectory look like?
The name comes from Doug Hofstadter (Gödel, Escher, Bach, 1979): the integers in the chain leap up and down like hailstones cycling through a cumulus cloud, eventually falling to "the ground" (n = 1). For n = 27 the sequence climbs from 27 to 9232 then takes 84 more steps to fall to 1, 111 in total. Statistical "heuristic" arguments show even steps vastly outnumber odd steps: each odd value is immediately followed by an even value and usually by several halvings, so on average each step multiplies n by ~¾. Under log-scaling, most trajectories resemble a random walk with downward drift. Individual paths can spike dramatically, but the expected stopping time grows like ~6.95 log n (Sinai, 2003). Empirically: n = 100 typically takes ~25 steps, n = 10⁹ takes ~140, and n = 10²⁰ takes ~350.
Related tools
Percentage Calculator
Percent of, percent change, and percent add/subtract in one.
GCD & LCM Calculator
Enter 2–6 positive integers to get the greatest common divisor (HCF / GCD) and least common multiple (LCM), with the Euclidean step chain shown.
Average Calculator (Mean / Median / Mode)
Enter a list of numbers to get the mean, median, mode, range plus standard deviation, variance and total.
Quadratic Equation Solver
Enter the coefficients of ax² + bx + c = 0 to find the real or complex roots, discriminant and vertex.
Password Strength (Entropy) Calculator
Estimate a password's bit entropy, brute-force time and strength tier. All computation happens in your browser.
Scientific Notation Converter
Convert between standard decimal numbers and scientific notation, with significant figures and order of magnitude.
Permutations & Combinations (nPr / nCr) Calculator
Compute permutations P(n,r), combinations C(n,r) and factorial n! — useful for probability problems, lottery odds and combinatorics homework.
Standard Deviation Calculator
Paste a list of numbers to compute mean, median, sample and population variance and standard deviation — with the working shown.
Triangle Calculator (SSS / SAS / ASA)
Solve a triangle from 3 sides, 2 sides + 1 angle, or 2 angles + 1 side — area, perimeter and remaining parts via the law of sines / cosines.
Pythagorean Theorem Calculator
Given any two sides of a right triangle (two legs, or one leg plus the hypotenuse), instantly find the third side, area, perimeter and the two non-right angles.
Circle Calculator (radius / diameter / circumference / area)
Enter any one of radius, diameter, circumference or area to get the other three — useful for design, engineering and DIY.
Roman Numeral Converter
Two-way conversion between Arabic numbers (1–3999) and Roman numerals (I, V, X, L, C, D, M) — handy for typesetting, chapter titles and homework.
Slope & Line Equation Calculator (y = mx + b from Two Points)
Enter two points (x₁, y₁) and (x₂, y₂) to instantly get the slope, y-intercept, line equation y = mx + b, distance, and midpoint — a classroom staple for algebra and coordinate geometry.
Birthday Paradox Calculator
Enter group size n to see the probability that at least two people share a birthday — the classic birthday problem.
Logarithm Calculator (log / ln / log₂ / any base)
Compute logₐ(x) for any base — natural log (ln), common log (log₁₀), binary log (log₂) and a custom base, with the change-of-base steps shown.
Z-Score (Standard Score) Calculator
Enter a value, the mean and the standard deviation to compute the z-score and the corresponding normal-distribution percentile and probabilities.
Screen Pixel Density (PPI) Calculator
Enter the screen resolution and diagonal size to get pixel density (PPI), real width/height, dot pitch and total pixel count.
Hong Kong Mark Six Odds Calculator
Enter the number of tickets / selections and see the actual probability of hitting first, second … prizes in a Mark Six (6-of-49) draw.
Decimal to Fraction Converter
Convert any decimal (including repeating decimals) to a simplified fraction and a mixed number.
Sphere Volume & Surface Area Calculator
Give a sphere any one of radius, diameter, surface area or volume and instantly get the other three — plus the great-circle circumference and area.
Cylinder Volume & Surface Area Calculator
Enter the radius and height of a cylinder to get volume (π r²h), lateral surface, base area and total surface area.
Permutations (nPr) Calculator
Compute nPr — the number of ordered arrangements of r items chosen from n — alongside n!, r! and the related combination nCr.
Prime Factorization Calculator
Factor any integer from 2 up to 10¹² into primes, see the canonical exponent form, count and list all divisors.
Geometric Mean Calculator
Compute the n-th root of the product of n positive numbers — the right average for growth rates, returns and ratios — alongside the arithmetic mean for comparison.
Fibonacci Sequence Calculator
Enter any integer n from 0 to 1500 to instantly compute F(n) and F(n−1) with BigInt precision, the consecutive-term ratio (converging to the golden ratio φ) and the first 30 terms of the sequence.
Dice Roll Probability Calculator
Pick the number of dice, sides (d4 / d6 / d8 / d10 / d12 / d20) and a target sum to compute the probability of rolling exactly that total, at least, or at most.
Arithmetic Series Calculator
Enter first term a, common difference d and number of terms n to compute the nth term aₙ and the partial sum Sₙ = n/2·(2a + (n − 1)d).
Survey Sample Size Calculator
Enter confidence level, margin of error, expected proportion (and optional population size) to compute the survey sample size you need.
Geometric Series Sum Calculator
Enter the first term a, common ratio r and number of terms n to find the sum of the first n terms of a geometric series — plus the infinite-series sum when |r| < 1.
Cone Volume & Surface Area Calculator
Enter base radius and height to get the cone volume, slant height, lateral, base and total surface area.
Music Note Frequency Calculator
Pick a note (C, C♯, D, …), octave and tuning reference A4 (440 Hz by default) and the tool returns the frequency in Hz, the wavelength in air and the MIDI note number via f = A4 × 2^((n − 69)/12).
Linear Interpolation Calculator (Lerp)
Enter two known points (x₁, y₁) and (x₂, y₂) and a target x to instantly read off y via y = y₁ + (x − x₁)(y₂ − y₁)/(x₂ − x₁) — the tool flags whether your x sits inside the two points (interpolation) or outside (extrapolation).
Trapezoid Area Calculator
Enter the two parallel sides and height of a trapezoid to get its area, midsegment length and perimeter when the legs are known.
Binomial Probability Calculator
Enter the number of trials n, the per-trial success probability p and a target number of successes k to get P(X = k), P(X ≤ k), P(X ≥ k) along with the distribution mean and standard deviation.
Pearson Correlation Coefficient Calculator
Paste two parallel data series (X and Y) and get the Pearson correlation coefficient r, r², the best-fit line slope and intercept, and the sample means and standard deviations.
Confidence Interval for the Mean Calculator
Enter the sample mean, sample standard deviation, sample size and confidence level to compute a confidence interval for the population mean using the t (or z) distribution, with margin of error and standard error.
Cohen's d Effect Size Calculator
Enter the means, standard deviations and sample sizes of two groups to compute Cohen's d and Hedges' g effect sizes, classified per Cohen 1988 as trivial / small / medium / large.
Modulo (Remainder) Calculator
Enter dividend a and divisor n to compute the quotient and remainder a mod n. The truncated (C / JavaScript %), floored (Python / mathematical) and Euclidean conventions are shown side by side so the negative-input differences are obvious.
chmod Permission Converter (Octal ↔ rwx)
Toggle read/write/execute for user, group and other to instantly get both octal (e.g. 755) and symbolic (e.g. rwxr-xr-x) notations.
Vector Magnitude & Direction Calculator (2D / 3D)
Enter 2D or 3D vector components (x, y, z) to compute the magnitude, unit vector and direction angles.
Percent Error Calculator (Percent Error & Percent Difference)
Enter experimental and theoretical (accepted) values to get absolute percent error, signed relative error, and absolute error. Switch to percent-difference mode to compare two measurements where neither is the accepted value.
Poisson Distribution Probability Calculator
Enter the mean event rate λ and an event count k to get P(X = k), P(X ≤ k), P(X ≥ k), the mean, variance and standard deviation — useful for queueing, call-centre staffing and rare-event modelling.
Bayes’ Theorem Probability Calculator
Enter the prior P(A), the sensitivity P(B|A) and the false-positive rate P(B|¬A); the tool applies Bayes’ theorem to give the posterior P(A|B) — handy for medical tests, spam filters and any classification decision.
Arc Length & Sector Area Calculator
Enter a circle’s radius and central angle (degrees or radians) to compute the arc length s = r·θ, sector area A = ½·r²·θ and chord length — useful for geometry, machining and architectural layout.
Matrix Determinant Calculator (2×2 and 3×3)
Enter the entries of a 2×2 or 3×3 matrix and instantly get the determinant det(A) via ad − bc or cofactor expansion along the first row, with an invertibility check and the step-by-step 2×2 minors shown for linear-algebra study.
Vector Dot Product Calculator (2D / 3D)
Enter two 2D or 3D vectors and instantly compute the dot product, included angle, scalar projection and vector projection — with hints for orthogonal, parallel and anti-parallel cases.
Cosine Similarity Calculator
Enter two numeric vectors of any dimension and compute cos θ = (a·b) / (|a|·|b|), plus the angular distance — the staple similarity metric in NLP, recommender systems and document-similarity scoring.
Percent Difference Calculator (Symmetric)
Enter two values and compute the symmetric percent difference |a − b| / ((|a| + |b|) / 2) alongside the directional percent change (b − a)/a — a common source of confusion in lab reports and news headlines.
Vector Cross Product Calculator (3D)
Enter two 3D vectors a and b, compute the cross product a × b together with its magnitude (the area of the parallelogram they span) and sin θ — the workhorse of physics torque, computational geometry and 3D graphics.
Distance Between Two Points Calculator (2D / 3D)
Enter two points in the plane or in 3D space and the tool returns the straight-line Euclidean distance √Σ(Δᵢ)², each axis delta and the midpoint — handy for geometry homework, CAD measurements and planar GIS work.
Coefficient of Variation Calculator (CV)
Enter a dataset and the tool returns the coefficient of variation CV = σ / μ × 100% (standard deviation divided by mean) — the standard yardstick for comparing dispersion across datasets with different units or magnitudes (lab repeatability, portfolio risk).
Median, Quartiles & IQR Calculator
Enter a dataset and the tool sorts it and returns the median, first and third quartiles, the inter-quartile range (IQR) and Tukey 1.5×IQR outlier fences — the five-number summary behind every box plot.
Harmonic Mean Calculator
Enter a set of positive numbers and compute the harmonic mean HM = n / Σ(1/xᵢ) alongside the arithmetic and geometric means — the right average when the data behaves like rates or denominators (speeds, P/E ratios, flow rates).
Shannon Entropy Calculator
Enter a list of class probabilities or frequencies and compute Shannon entropy H = −Σ pᵢ log₂ pᵢ (bits) alongside the maximum entropy and the normalised entropy — the foundation of information theory, decision-tree splits and password analysis.
Regular Polygon Calculator (Area, Angles, Radii)
Enter the side count n and side length s of a regular polygon and the tool returns the interior and exterior angles, the apothem and circumradius, the area and the perimeter in one shot — works for triangles, squares, pentagons, hexagons and beyond.
Catalan Number Calculator (Cₙ)
Enter n and the tool returns the n-th Catalan number Cₙ = (2n)! / ((n+1)! · n!) — the textbook count for balanced parentheses, binary tree shapes, Dyck paths and many other combinatorics problems.
RMSE / MAE Forecast Error Calculator
Enter a column of actual values and a column of predicted values; the tool computes MAE, MSE, RMSE, R² and MAPE side-by-side — the staple set of regression-error metrics in machine learning, forecasting and lab-vs-model comparisons — and explains how each one weights outliers differently.
Linear System Solver — 2 Equations, 2 Unknowns
Enter the 6 coefficients of ax + by = e and cx + dy = f. The tool applies Cramer's rule to return x, y, the determinant D and the system's classification (unique solution / no solution / infinitely many), showing the working out so it doubles as a homework check.
At-Least-One Probability Calculator
Enter a per-trial probability p and a trial count n; the tool returns the probability of at least one success 1 − (1 − p)ⁿ, the expected count np, and the trials needed to reach a target probability — the maths behind raffles, gacha pulls, A/B tests and redundancy design.
Chi-Square Goodness-of-Fit Test Calculator
Enter observed and expected counts; the tool computes the chi-square statistic χ² = Σ (O − E)² / E, degrees of freedom and the p-value to test whether the observed distribution deviates significantly from theory — the standard test for die fairness, Mendelian ratios and categorical A/B counts.
Expected Value Calculator (E[X] = Σ p·x)
Enter outcome values x and matching probabilities p; the tool returns the expected value E[X] = Σ p·x, variance Var(X) and standard deviation σ — the foundational metric for casino games, insurance pricing, investment decisions and A/B-test analysis.
Margin of Error Calculator (Polls & Sampling)
Enter sample size n, sample proportion p (or sample standard deviation) and a confidence level (90 / 95 / 99 %); the tool computes the margin of error MOE = z·√(p(1−p)/n) and the matching confidence interval — the core statistic behind political polls, A/B tests and market research.
Mean Absolute Deviation Calculator (MAD)
Enter a list of numbers; the tool returns the mean absolute deviation (MAD = average of |xᵢ − mean|) — a more intuitive spread measure than standard deviation, used in school statistics and demand-forecasting accuracy.
R² Coefficient of Determination Calculator
Paste (x, y) data points; the tool fits an ordinary least-squares regression and reports the coefficient of determination R², slope, intercept and Pearson r — the standard "how much variance is explained" measure.
Pyramid Volume Calculator
Enter base dimensions and height; the tool returns volume, base area, slant height, lateral surface area and total surface area for square, rectangular, equilateral-triangular or regular n-gon based right pyramids using V = ⅓ × base area × height.
Parallelogram Area Calculator
Enter base and height, or two side lengths and the included angle; the tool returns the parallelogram area, perimeter and both diagonals via A = b · h or A = a · b · sin θ.
Ellipse Area & Circumference Calculator (Ramanujan)
Enter the semi-major axis a and semi-minor axis b; the tool returns the area A = π a b and uses Ramanujan's second approximation for the perimeter — relative error below 4 × 10⁻⁵ across all eccentricities.
P-value from Z-score Calculator
Enter a Z-score; the tool returns the one-sided (left / right) and two-sided p-values, and flags significance against α = 0.05 / 0.01 / 0.001 — the missing step of nearly every hypothesis test.
Spherical Cap Volume & Surface Area Calculator
Enter the sphere radius R and cap height h; the tool returns V = πh²(3R − h)/3 and the curved surface area A = 2πRh — useful for partial spherical tanks, domes and lens segments.
Mode of a Dataset Calculator
Paste a list of values; the tool scans the dataset and reports the most-frequent value(s), handling unimodal, bimodal and multimodal cases, with the full frequency table — the standard intro-statistics tool for categorical and discrete data summaries.
Exponential Growth / Decay Calculator (N = N₀·e^(kt))
Enter initial value N₀, continuous rate constant k and elapsed time t; the tool returns N(t) = N₀·e^(kt), the per-period change, and the doubling time (k > 0) or half-life (k < 0) — the universal model for populations, bacteria, radioactive decay, first-order pharmacokinetics and continuously compounded interest.