Almost a century ago, a mathematician came up with a puzzle that was so seemingly simple and yet so fiendishly difficult that it has been distracting other mathematicians ever since. It has become a ...
Mathematician Will Sawin discusses his experience reviewing and refining a mathematical proof devised by OpenAI's internal model—and what that could mean for mathematics. Reading time 10 minutes Will ...
The Collatz conjecture states that for any positive integer n, the sequence defined by n → n/2 (if even) or 3n+1 (if odd) eventually reaches the cycle {1, 4, 2}. Despite verification up to 2.95×10²⁰, ...