The Collatz Conjecture or 3x+1 problem can be summarized as follows:
Take any positive integer n. If n is even, divide n by 2 to get n / 2. If n is odd, multiply n by 3 and add 1 to get 3n + 1. Repeat the process indefinitely. The conjecture states that no matter which number you start with, you will always reach 1 eventually.
Given a number n, return the number of steps required to reach 1.
Starting with n = 12, the steps would be as follows:
- 12
- 6
- 3
- 10
- 5
- 16
- 8
- 4
- 2
- 1
Resulting in 9 steps. So for input n = 12, the return value would be 9.
Install assignment dependencies:
$ yarn
Execute the tests with:
$ yarn test
An unsolved problem in mathematics named after mathematician Lothar Collatz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3x_%2B_1_problem