A005282 -id:A005282 - cp's OEIS frontend

A000002 Kolakoski sequence: a(n) is length of n-th run; a(1) = 1; sequence consists just of 1's and 2's.

1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2

Offset: 1

N. J. A. Sloane

Historical note: the sequence might be better called the Oldenburger-Kolakoski sequence, since it was discussed by Rufus Oldenburger in 1939; see links. - Clark Kimberling, Dec 06 2012.  However, to avoid confusion, this sequence will be known in the OEIS as the Kolakoski sequence. It is undesirable to have some entries refer to the Oldenburger-Kolakoski sequence and others to the Kolakoski sequence. - N. J. A. Sloane, Nov 22 2017
It is an unsolved problem to show that the density of 1's is equal to 1/2.
A weaker problem is to construct a combinatorial bijection between the set of positions of 1's and the set of positions of 2's. - Gus Wiseman, Mar 01 2016
The sequence is cubefree and all square subwords have lengths which are one of 2, 4, 6, 18 and 54 (see A294447) [Carpi, 1994].
This is a fractal sequence: replace each run with its length and recover the original sequence. - Kerry Mitchell, Dec 08 2005
Kupin and Rowland write: We use a method of Goulden and Jackson to bound freq_1(K), the limiting frequency of 1 in the Kolakoski word K. We prove that |freq_1(K) - 1/2| <= 17/762, assuming the limit exists and establish the semirigorous bound |freq_1(K) - 1/2| <= 1/46. - Jonathan Vos Post, Sep 16 2008
freq_1(K) is conjectured to be 1/2 + O(log(K)) (see PlanetMath link). - Jon Perry, Oct 29 2014
Conjecture: Taking the sequence in word lengths of 10, for example, batch 1-10, 11-20, etc., then there can only be 4, 5 or 6 1's in each batch. - Jon Perry, Sep 26 2012
From Jean-Christophe Hervé, Oct 04 2014: (Start)
The sequence does not contain words of the form ababa, because this would imply the impossible 111 (1 b, 1 a, 1 b) somewhere before. This demonstrates the conjecture made by Jon Perry: more than 6 1's or 6 2's in a word of 10 would necessitate something like aabaabaaba, which would imply the impossible 12121 before (word aabaababaa is also impossible because of ababa). The remark on the sextuplets below even shows that the number of 1's in any 9-tuplet is always 4 or 5.
There are only 6 triples that appear in the sequence (112, 121, 122, 211, 212 and 221); and by the preceding argument, only 18 sextuplets: the 6 double triples (112112, etc.); 112122, 112212, 121122, 121221, 211212, and 211221; and those obtained by reversing the order of the triples (122112, etc.). Regarding the density of 1's in the sequence, these 12 sextuplets all have a density 1/2 of 1's, and the 6 double triples all lead to a word with this exact density after transformation by the Kolakoski rules, for example: 112112 -> 12112122 (4 1's/8); this is because the second triple reverses the numbers of 1's and 2's generated by the first triple. Therefore, the sequence can be split into the double triples on one side, a part whose transformation (which is in the sequence) has a density of 1's of 1/2; and a part with the other sextuplets, which has directly the same density of 1's. (End)
If we map 1 to +1 and 2 to -1, then the mapped sequence would have a [conjectured] mean of 0, since the Kolakoski sequence is [conjectured] to have an equal density (1/2) of 1s and 2s. For the partial sums of this mapped sequence, see A088568. - Daniel Forgues, Jul 08 2015
Looking at the plot for A088568, it seems that although the asymptotic densities of 1s and 2s appear to be 1/2, there might be a bias in favor of the 2s. I.e., D(1) = 1/2 - O(log(n)/n), D(2) = 1/2 + O(log(n)/n). - Daniel Forgues, Jul 11 2015
From Michel Dekking, Jan 31 2018: (Start)
(a(n)) is the unique fixed point of the 2-block substitution beta
    11 -> 12
    12 -> 122
    21 -> 112
    22 -> 1122.
A 2-block substitution beta maps a word w(1)...w(2n) to the word
    beta(w(1)w(2))...beta(w(2n-1)w(2n)).
If the word has odd length, then the last letter is ignored.
It was noted by me in 1979 in the Bordeaux seminar on number theory that (a(n+1)) is fixed point of the 2-block substitution 11 -> 21, 12 -> 211, 21 -> 221,  22 -> 2211. (End)
Named after the American artist and recreational mathematician William George Kolakoski (1944-1997). - Amiram Eldar, Jun 17 2021

			Start with a(1) = 1. By definition of the sequence, this says that the first run has length 1, so it must be a single 1, and a(2) = 2. Thus, the second run (which starts with this 2) must have length 2, so the third term must be also be a(3) = 2, and the fourth term can't be a 2, so must be a(4) = 1. Since a(3) = 2, the third run must have length 2, so we deduce a(5) = 1, a(6) = 2, and so on. The correction I made was to change a(4) to a(5) and a(5) to a(6). - _Labos Elemer_, corrected by _Graeme McRae_

Jean-Paul Allouche and Jeffrey Shallit, Automatic Sequences, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003, p. 337.
Éric Angelini, "Jeux de suites", in Dossier Pour La Science, pp. 32-35, Volume 59 (Jeux math'), April/June 2008, Paris.
F. M. Dekking, What Is the Long Range Order in the Kolakoski Sequence?, in The mathematics of long-range aperiodic order (Waterloo, ON, 1995), 115-125, NATO Adv. Sci. Inst. Ser. C Math. Phys. Sci., 489, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 1997. Math. Rev. 98g:11022.
Michael S. Keane, Ergodic theory and subshifts of finite type, Chap. 2 of T. Bedford et al., eds., Ergodic Theory, Symbolic Dynamics and Hyperbolic Spaces, Oxford, 1991, esp. p. 50.
J. C. Lagarias, Number Theory and Dynamical Systems, pp. 35-72 of S. A. Burr, ed., The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Number Theory, Proc. Sympos. Appl. Math., 46 (1992). Amer. Math. Soc.
Michel Rigo, Formal Languages, Automata and Numeration Systems, 2 vols., Wiley, 2014. Mentions this sequence - see "List of Sequences" in Vol. 2.
N. J. A. Sloane, A Handbook of Integer Sequences, Academic Press, 1973 (includes this sequence).
N. J. A. Sloane and Simon Plouffe, The Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences, Academic Press, 1995 (includes this sequence).
Ilan Vardi, Computational Recreations in Mathematica. Addison-Wesley, Redwood City, CA, 1991, p. 233.

N. J. A. Sloane, Table of n, a(n) for n = 1..10502
Jean-Paul Allouche, Michael Baake, Julien Cassaigne and David Damanik, Palindrome complexity, arXiv:math/0106121 [math.CO], 2001; Theoretical Computer Science, Vol. 292 (2003), pp. 9-31.
Michael Baake and Bernd Sing, Kolakoski-(3,1) is a (deformed) model set, arXiv:math/0206098 [math.MG], 2002-2003.
Alex Bellos and Brady Haran, The Kolakoski Sequence, Numberphile video (2017).
Olivier Bordellès and Benoit Cloitre, Bounds for the Kolakoski Sequence, J. Integer Sequences, Vol. 14 (2011), Article 11.2.1.
Richard P. Brent, Fast algorithms for the Kolakoski sequence, Slides from a talk, 2016.
Éric Brier, Rémi Géraud-Stewart, David Naccache, Alessandro Pacco, and Emanuele Troiani, The Look-and-Say The Biggest Sequence Eventually Cycles, arXiv:2006.07246 [math.DS], 2020.
Arturo Carpi, On repeated factors in C^infinity-words, Information Processing Letters, Vol. 52 (1994), pp. 289-294.
Benoit Cloitre, The Kolakoski transform of words.
Benoit Cloitre, Plot of walk on the first 60000 terms (step of unit length moving right with angle Pi/2 if 2 and left with angle -Pi/2 if 1 starting at (0,0)).
F. M. Dekking, Regularity and irregularity of sequences generated by automata, Seminar on Number Theory, 1979-1980 (Talence, 1979-1980), Exp. No. 9, 10 pp., Univ. Bordeaux I, Talence, 1980.
F. M. Dekking, On the structure of self-generating sequences, Seminar on Number Theory, 1980-1981 (Talence, 1980-1981), Exp. No. 31, 6 pp., Univ. Bordeaux I, Talence, 1981. Math. Rev. 83e:10075. JSTOR
F. M. Dekking, What Is the Long Range Order in the Kolakoski Sequence?, Report 95-100, Technische Universiteit Delft, 1995.
F. M. Dekking, The Thue-Morse Sequence in Base 3/2, J. Int. Seq., Vol. 26 (2023), Article 23.2.3.
Jörg Endrullis, Dimitri Hendriks and Jan Willem Klop, Degrees of Streams, Integers, Vol. 11B (2011), A6.
David Eppstein, The Kolakoski tree and The Kolakoski sequence via bit tricks instead of recursion.
Jean-Marc Fédou and Gabriele Fici, Some remarks on differentiable sequences and recursivity, Journal of Integer Sequences, Vol. 13 (2010), Article 10.3.2.
Abdallah Hammam, Some new Formulas for the Kolakoski Sequence A000002, Turkish Journal of Analysis and Number Theory, Vol. 4, No. 3 (2016), pp. 54-59.
Mari Huova and Juhani Karhumäki, On Unavoidability of k-abelian Squares in Pure Morphic Words, Journal of Integer Sequences, Vol. 16 (2013), #13.2.9.
Clark Kimberling, Integer Sequences and Arrays, Illustration of the Kolakoski sequence.
William Kolakoski, Problem 5304, Amer. Math. Monthly, Vol. 72, No. 8 (1965), p. 674; Self Generating Runs, Solution to Problem 5304 by Necdet Üçoluk, Vol. 73, No. 6 (1966), pp. 681-682.
Leonid V. Kovalev, Kolakoski sequence II.
Elizabeth J. Kupin and Eric S. Rowland, Bounds on the frequency of 1 in the Kolakoski word, arXiv:0809.2776 [math.CO], Sep 16, 2008.
Rabie A. Mahmoud, Hardware Implementation of Binary Kolakoski Sequence, Research Gate, 2015.
Kerry Mitchell, Spirolateral-Type Images from Integer Sequences, 2013.
Johan Nilsson, A Space Efficient Algorithm for the Calculation of the Digit Distribution in the Kolakoski Sequence, J. Int. Seq., Vol. 15 (2012), Article 12.6.7; arXiv preprint, arXiv:1110.4228 [math.CO], Oct 19, 2011.
J. Nilsson, Letter Frequencies in the Kolakoski Sequence, Acta Physica Polonica A, Vol. 126 (2014), pp. 549-552.
Rufus Oldenburger, Exponent trajectories in symbolic dynamics, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc., Vol. 46 (1939), pp. 453-466.
Matthew Parker, The first 50K terms (7-Zip compressed file).
Gheorghe Păun and Arto Salomaa, Self-reading sequences, Amer. Math. Monthly, Vol. 103, No. 2 (1996), pp. 166-168.
Michael Rao, Trucs et bidules sur la séquence de Kolakoski, 2012, in French.
A. Scolnicov, Kolakoski sequence, PlanetMath.org.
Bobby Shen, A uniformness conjecture of the Kolakoski sequence, graph connectivity, and correlations, arXiv:1703.00180 [math.CO], 2017.
Bernd Sing, More Kolakoski Sequences, INTEGERS, Vol. 11B (2011), A14.
N. J. A. Sloane, Handwritten notes on Self-Generating Sequences, 1970. (note that A1148 has now become A005282)
N. J. A. Sloane, Coordination Sequences, Planing Numbers, and Other Recent Sequences (II), Experimental Mathematics Seminar, Rutgers University, Jan 31 2019, Part I, Part 2, Slides. (Mentions this sequence)
Bertran Steinsky, A Recursive Formula for the Kolakoski Sequence A000002, J. Integer Sequences, Vol. 9 (2006), Article 06.3.7.
Eric Weisstein's World of Mathematics, Kolakoski Sequence
Wikipedia, Kolakoski sequence.
Gus Wiseman, Kolakoski fractal animation for n=40000.
Ed Wynn, Program to generate A000002 in Shakespeare Programming Language.
Index entries for "core" sequences

Cf. A001083, A006928, A042942, A069864, A010060, A078929, A171899, A054353 (partial sums), A074286, A216345, A294447.
Cf. A054354, bisections: A100428, A100429.
Cf. A013947, A156077, A234322 (positions, running total and percentage of 1's).
Cf. A118270.
Cf. A049705, A088569 (are either subsequences of A000002? - Jon Perry, Oct 30 2014)
Kolakoski-type sequences using other seeds than (1,2):
A078880 (2,1), A064353 (1,3), A071820 (2,3), A074804 (3,2), A071907 (1,4), A071928 (2,4), A071942 (3,4), A074803 (4,2), A079729 (1,2,3), A079730 (1,2,3,4).
Other self-describing: A001462 (Golomb sequence, see also references therein), A005041, A100144.
Cf. A088568 (partial sums of [3 - 2 * a(n)]).

a = 1:2: drop 2 (concat . zipWith replicate a . cycle $ [1,2]) -- John Tromp, Apr 09 2011

M := 100; s := [ 1,2,2 ]; for n from 3 to M do for i from 1 to s[ n ] do s := [ op(s),1+((n-1)mod 2) ]; od: od: s; A000002 := n->s[n];
# alternative implementation based on the Cloitre formula:
A000002 := proc(n)
    local ksu,k ;
    option remember;
    if n = 1 then
        1;
    elif n <=3 then
        2;
    else
        for k from 1 do
            ksu := add(procname(i),i=1..k) ;
            if n = ksu then
                return (3+(-1)^k)/2 ;
            elif n = ksu+ 1 then
                return (3-(-1)^k)/2 ;
            end if;
        end do:
    end if;
end proc: # R. J. Mathar, Nov 15 2014

a[steps_] := Module[{a = {1, 2, 2}}, Do[a = Append[a, 1 + Mod[(n - 1), 2]], {n, 3, steps}, {i, a[[n]]}]; a]
a[ n_] := If[ n < 3, Max[ 0, n], Module[ {an = {1, 2, 2}, m = 3}, While[ Length[ an] < n, an = Join[ an, Table[ Mod[m, 2, 1], { an[[ m]]} ]]; m++]; an[[n]]]] (* Michael Somos, Jul 11 2011 *)
n=8; Prepend[ Nest[ Flatten[ Partition[#, 2] /. {{2, 2} -> {2, 2, 1, 1}, {2, 1} -> {2, 2, 1}, {1, 2} -> {2, 1, 1}, {1, 1} -> {2, 1}}] &, {2, 2}, n], 1] (* Birkas Gyorgy, Jul 10 2012 *)
KolakoskiSeq[n_Integer] := Block[{a = {1, 2, 2}}, Fold[Join[#1, ConstantArray[Mod[#2, 2, 1], #1[[#2]]]] &, a, Range[3, n]]]; KolakoskiSeq[999] (* Mikk Heidemaa, Nov 01 2024 *) (* Corrected by Giorgos Kalogeropoulos, May 09 2025 *)

my(a=[1,2,2]); for(n=3,80, for(i=1,a[n],a=concat(a,2-n%2))); a

{a(n) = local(an=[1, 2, 2], m=3); if( n<1, 0, while( #an < n, an = concat( an, vector(an[m], i, 2-m%2)); m++); an[n])};

# For explanation see link.
def Kolakoski():
    x = y = -1
    while True:
        yield [2,1][x&1]
        f = y &~ (y+1)
        x ^= f
        y = (y+1) | (f & (x>>1))
K = Kolakoski()
print([next(K) for  in range(100)]) # _David Eppstein, Oct 15 2016

These two formulas define completely the sequence: a(1)=1, a(2)=2, a(a(1) + a(2) + ... + a(k)) = (3 + (-1)^k)/2 and a(a(1) + a(2) + ... + a(k) + 1) = (3 - (-1)^k)/2. - Benoit Cloitre, Oct 06 2003
a(n+2)*a(n+1)*a(n)/2 = a(n+2) + a(n+1) + a(n) - 3 (this formula doesn't define the sequence, it is just a consequence of the definition). - Benoit Cloitre, Nov 17 2003
a(n+1) = 3 - a(n) + (a(n) - a(n-1))*(a(b(n)) - 1), where b(n) is the sequence A156253. - Jean-Marc Fedou and Gabriele Fici, Mar 18 2010
a(n) = (3 + (-1)^A156253(n))/2. - Benoit Cloitre, Sep 17 2013
Conjectures from Boštjan Gec, Oct 07 2024: (Start)
a(n)*(a(n-1) + a(n-2) - 3) + a(n-1)*a(n-2) + 7 = 3*a(n-1) + 3*a(n-2).
a(n)*(a(n-1) + a(n-2) - 3) = a(n-3)*(a(n-1) + a(n-2) - 3). (End)
Comment from Kevin Ryde, Oct 07 2024: The above formulas are true: The parts identify when terms are same or different and they hold for any sequence of 1's and 2's with run lengths 1 or 2.

Minor edits to example and PARI code made by M. F. Hasler, May 07 2014

A002024 k appears k times; a(n) = floor(sqrt(2n) + 1/2).

Original entry on oeis.org

1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13

Offset: 1

N. J. A. Sloane

Integer inverse function of the triangular numbers A000217. The function trinv(n) = floor((1+sqrt(1+8n))/2), n >= 0, gives the values 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, ..., that is, the same sequence with offset 0. - N. J. A. Sloane, Jun 21 2009
Array T(k,n) = n+k-1 read by antidiagonals.
Eigensequence of the triangle = A001563. - Gary W. Adamson, Dec 29 2008
Can apparently also be defined via a(n+1)=b(n) for n >= 2 where b(0)=b(1)=1 and b(n) = b(n-b(n-2))+1. Tested to be correct for all n <= 150000. - José María Grau Ribas, Jun 10 2011
For any n >= 0, a(n+1) is the least integer m such that A000217(m)=m(m+1)/2 is larger than n. This is useful when enumerating representations of n as difference of triangular numbers; see also A234813. - M. F. Hasler, Apr 19 2014
Number of binary digits of A023758, i.e., a(n) = ceiling(log_2(A023758(n+2))). - Andres Cicuttin, Apr 29 2016
a(n) and A002260(n) give respectively the x(n) and y(n) coordinates of the sorted sequence of points in the integer lattice such that x(n) > 0, 0 < y(n) <= x(n), and min(x(n), y(n)) < max(x(n+1), y(n+1)) for n > 0. - Andres Cicuttin, Dec 25 2016
Partial sums (A060432) are given by S(n) = (-a(n)^3 + a(n)*(1+6n))/6. - Daniel Cieslinski, Oct 23 2017
As an array, T(k,n) is the number of digits columns used in carryless multiplication between a k-digit number and an n-digit number. - Stefano Spezia, Sep 24 2022
a(n) is the maximum number of possible solutions to an n-statement Knights and Knaves Puzzle, where each statement is of the form "x of us are knights" for some 1 <= x <= n, knights can only tell the truth and knaves can only lie. - Taisha Charles and Brittany Ohlinger, Jul 29 2023

			From _Clark Kimberling_, Sep 16 2008: (Start)
As a rectangular array, a northwest corner:
  1 2 3 4 5 6
  2 3 4 5 6 7
  3 4 5 6 7 8
  4 5 6 7 8 9
This is the weight array (cf. A144112) of A107985 (formatted as a rectangular array). (End)
G.f. = x + 2*x^2 + 2*x^3 + 3*x^4 + 3*x^5 + 3*x^6 + 4*x^7 + 4*x^9 + 4*x^9 + 4*x^10 + ...

Edward S. Barbeau, Murray S. Klamkin, and William O. J. Moser, Five Hundred Mathematical Challenges, Prob. 441, pp. 41, 194. MAA 1995.
R. L. Graham, D. E. Knuth, and O. Patashnik, Concrete Mathematics. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1990, p. 97.
K. Hardy and K. S. Williams, The Green Book of Mathematical Problems, p. 59, Solution to Prob. 14, Dover NY, 1985
R. Honsberger, Mathematical Morsels, pp. 133-134, MAA 1978.
J. F. Hurley, Litton's Problematical Recreations, pp. 152; 313-4 Prob. 22, VNR Co., NY, 1971.
D. E. Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, Vol. 1, p. 43.
N. J. A. Sloane, A Handbook of Integer Sequences, Academic Press, 1973 (includes this sequence).
N. J. A. Sloane and Simon Plouffe, The Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences, Academic Press, 1995 (includes this sequence).
S. Wolfram, A New Kind of Science, Wolfram Media, 2002; p. 129.

Franklin T. Adams-Watters, Table of n, a(n) for n = 1..5050
Jaegug Bae and Sungjin Choi, A generalization of a subset-sum-distinct sequence, J. Korean Math. Soc. 40 (2003), no. 5, 757--768. MR1996839 (2004d:05198). See b(n).
Jonathan H. B. Deane and Guido Gentile, A diluted version of the problem of the existence of the Hofstadter sequence, arXiv:2311.13854 [math.NT], 2023. See p. 10.
Nathan Fox, Connecting Slow Solutions to Nested Recurrences with Linear Recurrent Sequences, arXiv:2203.09340 [math.CO], 2022.
H. T. Freitag and H. W. Gould, Solution to Problem 571, Math. Mag., 38 (1965), 185-187.
H. T. Freitag (Proposer) and H. W. Gould (Solver), Problem 571: An Ordering of the Rationals, Math. Mag., 38 (1965), 185-187 [Annotated scanned copy]
Mikel Garcia-de-Andoin, Álvaro Saiz, Pedro Pérez-Fernández, Lucas Lamata, Izaskun Oregi, and Mikel Sanz, Digital-Analog Quantum Computation with Arbitrary Two-Body Hamiltonians, arXiv:2307.00966 [quant-ph], 2023.
S. W. Golomb, Discrete chaos: sequences satisfying "strange" recursions, unpublished manuscript, circa 1990 [cached copy, with permission (annotated)]
Henry W. Gould, Letters to N. J. A. Sloane, Oct 1973 and Jan 1974.
Abraham Isgur, Vitaly Kuznetsov, and Stephen Tanny, A combinatorial approach for solving certain nested recursions with non-slow solutions, arXiv:1202.0276 [math.CO], 2012.
Stanley Wu-Wei Liu, Closed form expressions for A002024(n).
M. A. Nyblom, Some curious sequences involving floor and ceiling functions, Am. Math. Monthly 109 (#6, 200), 559-564.
Boris Putievskiy, Transformations [Of] Integer Sequences And Pairing Functions, arXiv:1212.2732 [math.CO], 2012.
Raphael Schumacher, Extension of Summation Formulas involving Stirling series, arXiv:1605.09204 [math.NT], 2016.
Raphael Schumacher, The self-counting identity, Fib. Quart., 55 (No. 2 2017), 157-167.
Raphael Schumacher, The Self-Counting Flow, Fibonacci Quart. 60 (2022), no. 5, 324-343.
N. J. A. Sloane, Handwritten notes on Self-Generating Sequences, 1970. (note that A1148 has now become A005282)
Michael Somos, Sequences used for indexing triangular or square arrays.
L. J. Upton, Letter to N. J. A. Sloane, May 22 1991.
Eric Weisstein's World of Mathematics, Self-Counting Sequence.
Index entries for Hofstadter-type sequences

a(n+1) = 1+A003056(n), A022846(n)=a(n^2), a(n+1)=A002260(n)+A025581(n).
Cf. A001462, A002262, A003881, A004736, A127899, A107985, A001563, A014132, A000194, A005145, A131507, A093995, A060432 (partial sums).
A123578 is an essentially identical sequence.

a002024 n k = a002024_tabl !! (n-1) !! (k-1)
a002024_row n = a002024_tabl !! (n-1)
a002024_tabl = iterate (\xs@(x:_) -> map (+ 1) (x : xs)) [1]
a002024_list = concat a002024_tabl
a002024' = round . sqrt . (* 2) . fromIntegral
-- Reinhard Zumkeller, Jul 05 2015, Feb 12 2012, Mar 18 2011

a002024_list = [1..] >>= \n -> replicate n n

a002024 = (!!) $ [1..] >>= \n -> replicate n n
-- Sascha Mücke, May 10 2016

[Floor(Sqrt(2*n) + 1/2): n in [1..80]]; // Vincenzo Librandi, Nov 19 2014

A002024 := n-> ceil((sqrt(1+8*n)-1)/2); seq(A002024(n), n=1..100);

a[1] = 1; a[n_] := a[n] = a[n - a[n - 1]] + 1 (* Branko Curgus, May 12 2009 *)
Table[n, {n, 13}, {n}] // Flatten (* Robert G. Wilson v, May 11 2010 *)
Table[PadRight[{},n,n],{n,15}]//Flatten (* Harvey P. Dale, Jan 13 2019 *)

t1(n)=floor(1/2+sqrt(2*n)) /* A002024 = this sequence */

t2(n)=n-binomial(floor(1/2+sqrt(2*n)),2) /* A002260(n-1) */

t3(n)=binomial(floor(3/2+sqrt(2*n)),2)-n+1 /* A004736 */

t4(n)=n-1-binomial(floor(1/2+sqrt(2*n)),2) /* A002260(n-1)-1 */

A002024(n)=(sqrtint(n*8)+1)\2 \\ M. F. Hasler, Apr 19 2014

PARI
```
a(n)=(sqrtint(8*n-7)+1)\2
```

a(n)=my(k=1);while(binomial(k+1,2)+1<=n,k++);k \\ R. J. Cano, Mar 17 2014

from math import isqrt
def A002024(n): return (isqrt(8*n)+1)//2 # Chai Wah Wu, Feb 02 2022

[floor(sqrt(2*n) +1/2) for n in (1..80)] # G. C. Greubel, Dec 10 2018

a(n) = floor(1/2 + sqrt(2n)). Also a(n) = ceiling((sqrt(1+8n)-1)/2). [See the Liu link for a large collection of explicit formulas. - N. J. A. Sloane, Oct 30 2019]
a((k-1)*k/2 + i) = k for k > 0 and 0 < i <= k. - Reinhard Zumkeller, Aug 30 2001
a(n) = a(n - a(n-1)) + 1, with a(1)=1. - Ian M. Levitt (ilevitt(AT)duke.poly.edu), Aug 18 2002
a(n) = round(sqrt(2n)). - Antonio G. Astudillo (afg_astudillo(AT)hotmail.com), Nov 01 2002
T(n,k) = A003602(A118413(n,k)); = T(n,k) = A001511(A118416(n,k)). - Reinhard Zumkeller, Apr 27 2006
G.f.: (x/(1-x))*Product_{k>0} (1-x^(2*k))/(1-x^(2*k-1)). - Vladeta Jovovic, Oct 06 2003
Equals A127899 * A004736. - Gary W. Adamson, Feb 09 2007
Sum_{i=1..n} Sum_{j=i..n+i-1} T(j,i) = A000578(n); Sum_{i=1..n} T(n,i) = A000290(n). - Reinhard Zumkeller, Jun 24 2007
a(n) + n = A014132(n). - Vincenzo Librandi, Jul 08 2010
a(n) = ceiling(-1/2 + sqrt(2n)). - Branko Curgus, May 12 2009
a(A169581(n)) = A038567(n). - Reinhard Zumkeller, Dec 02 2009
a(n) = round(sqrt(2*n)) = round(sqrt(2*n-1)); there exist a and b greater than zero such that 2*n = 2+(a+b)^2 -(a+3*b) and a(n)=(a+b-1). - Fabio Civolani (civox(AT)tiscali.it), Feb 23 2010
A005318(n+1) = 2*A005318(n) - A205744(n), A205744(n) = A005318(A083920(n)), A083920(n) = n - a(n). - N. J. A. Sloane, Feb 11 2012
Expansion of psi(x) * x / (1 - x) in powers of x where psi() is a Ramanujan theta function. - Michael Somos, Mar 19 2014
G.f.: (x/(1-x)) * Product_{n>=1} (1 + x^n) * (1 - x^(2*n)). - Paul D. Hanna, Feb 27 2016
a(n) = 1 + Sum_{i=1..n/2} ceiling(floor(2(n-1)/(i^2+i))/(2n)). - José de Jesús Camacho Medina, Jan 07 2017
a(n) = floor((sqrt(8*n-7)+1)/2). - Néstor Jofré, Apr 24 2017
a(n) = floor((A000196(8*n)+1)/2). - Pontus von Brömssen, Dec 10 2018
Sum_{n>=1} (-1)^(n+1)/a(n) = Pi/4 (A003881). - Amiram Eldar, Oct 01 2022
G.f. as array: (x^2*(1 - y)^2 + y^2 + x*y*(1 - 2*y))/((1 - x)^2*(1 - y)^2). - Stefano Spezia, Apr 22 2024

A001462 Golomb's sequence: a(n) is the number of times n occurs, starting with a(1) = 1.

Original entry on oeis.org

1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 8, 8, 8, 8, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 17, 17, 17, 17, 17, 17, 17, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 19

Offset: 1

N. J. A. Sloane

It is understood that a(n) is taken to be the smallest number >= a(n-1) which is compatible with the description.
In other words, this is the lexicographically earliest nondecreasing sequence of positive numbers which is equal to its RUNS transform. - N. J. A. Sloane, Nov 07 2018
Also called Silverman's sequence.
Vardi gives several identities satisfied by A001463 and this sequence.
We can interpret this sequence as a triangle: start with 1; 2,2; 3,3; and proceed by letting the row sum of row m-1 be the number of elements of row m. The partial sums of the row sums give 1, 5, 11, 38, 272, ... Conjecture: this proceeds as Lionel Levine's sequence A014644. See also A113676. - Floor van Lamoen, Nov 06 2005
A Golomb-type sequence, that is, one with the property of being a sequence of run length of itself, can be built over any sequence with distinct terms by repeating each term a corresponding number of times, in the same manner as a(n) is built over natural numbers. See cross-references for more examples. - Ivan Neretin, Mar 29 2015
From Amiram Eldar, Jun 19 2021: (Start)
Named after the American mathematician Solomon Wolf Golomb (1932-2016).
Guy (2004) called it "Golomb's self-histogramming sequence", while in previous editions of his book (1981 and 1994) he called it "Silverman's sequence" after David Silverman. (End)
a(n) is also the number of numbers that occur n times. - Leo Crabbe, Feb 15 2025

			a(1) = 1, so 1 only appears once. The next term is therefore 2, which means 2 appears twice and so a(3) is also 2 but a(4) must be 3. And so on.
G.f. = x + 2*x^2 + 2*x^3 + 3*x^4 + 3*x^5 + 4*x^6 + 4*x^7 + 4*x^8 + ... - _Michael Somos_, Nov 07 2018

Graham Everest, Alf van der Poorten, Igor Shparlinski and Thomas Ward, Recurrence Sequences, Amer. Math. Soc., 2003; p. 10.
Ronald L. Graham, Donald E. Knuth and Oren Patashnik, Concrete Mathematics. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1990, p. 66.
Richard K. Guy, Unsolved Problems in Number Theory, 3rd Edition, Springer, 2004, Section E25, p. 347-348.
N. J. A. Sloane, A Handbook of Integer Sequences, Academic Press, 1973 (includes this sequence).
N. J. A. Sloane, Seven Staggering Sequences, in Homage to a Pied Puzzler, E. Pegg Jr., A. H. Schoen and T. Rodgers (editors), A. K. Peters, Wellesley, MA, 2009, pp. 93-110.
N. J. A. Sloane and Simon Plouffe, The Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences, Academic Press, 1995 (includes this sequence).

T. D. Noe, Table of n, a(n) for n = 1..10000
Altug Alkan, On a Generalization of Hofstadter's Q-Sequence: A Family of Chaotic Generational Structures, Complexity (2018), Article ID 8517125.
Joaquim Bruna, The golden ratio from a calculus point of view, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Materials matemàtics (2023) Vol. 2023, No. 4.
Benoit Cloitre, N. J. A. Sloane and Matthew J. Vandermast, Numerical analogues of Aronson's sequence, J. Integer Seq., Vol. 6 (2003), Article 03.2.2.
Benoit Cloitre, N. J. A. Sloane and Matthew J. Vandermast, Numerical analogues of Aronson's sequence, arXiv:math/0305308 [math.NT], 2003.
Martin Gardner, Letter to N. J. A. Sloane, Jun 20 1991.
Solomon W. Golomb, Problem 5407, Amer. Math. Monthly, Vol. 73, No. 6 (1966), p. 674.
Jarosław Grytczuk, Another variation on Conway's recursive sequence, Discr. Math., Vol. 282, No. 1-3 (2004), pp. 149-161.
Brady Haran and Tony Padilla, Six Sequences, Numberphile video (2013).
Brady Haran and N. J. A. Sloane, Planing Sequences (Le Rabot), Numberphile video, June 2021.
Daniel Marcus and N. J. Fine, Solutions to Problem 5407, Amer. Math. Monthly, Vol. 74, No. 6 (1967), pp. 740-743.
Christian Perfect, Integer sequence reviews on Numberphile (or vice versa), 2013.
Y.-F. S. Petermann, On Golomb's self-describing sequence, J. Number Theory, Vol. 53, No. 1 (1995), pp. 13-24.
Y.-F. S. Petermann, On Golomb's self-describing sequence, II, Arch. Math. (Basel) 67 (1996), 473-477.
Y.-F. S. Petermann, Is the error term wild enough?, Analysis (Munich), Vol. 18 (1998), pp. 245-256.
Y.-F. S. Pétermann and Jean-Luc Rémy, Golomb's self-described sequence and functional-differential equations, Illinois J. Math., Vol. 42, No. 3 (1998), pp. 420-440.
Y.-F. S. Pétermann, Jean-Luc Rémy and Ilan Vardi, Discrete derivatives of sequences, Adv. in Appl. Math., Vol. 27 (2001), pp. 562-84.
Jean-Luc Rémy, Sur la suite autodécrite de Golomb, J. Number Theory, Vo. 66, No. 1 (1997), pp. 1-28.
Jim Sauerberg and Linghsueh Shu, The long and the short on counting sequences, Amer. Math. Monthly, Vol. 104, No. 4 (1997), pp. 306-317.
N. J. A. Sloane, My favorite integer sequences, in Sequences and their Applications (Proceedings of SETA '98).
N. J. A. Sloane, Seven Staggering Sequences.
N. J. A. Sloane, Handwritten notes on Self-Generating Sequences, 1970. (note that A1148 has now become A005282)
N. J. A. Sloane, Transforms.
N. J. A. Sloane, Coordination Sequences, Planing Numbers, and Other Recent Sequences (II), Experimental Mathematics Seminar, Rutgers University, Jan 31 2019, Part I, Part 2, Slides. (Mentions this sequence)
Ilan Vardi, The error term in Golomb's sequence, J. Number Theory, Vol. 40 (1992), pp. 1-11. (See also the Math. Review, 93d:11103)
Eric Weisstein's World of Mathematics, Silverman's Sequence.
Index entries for "core" sequences
Index entries for sequences of the a(a(n)) = 2n family

Cf. A001463 (partial sums) and A262986 (start of first run of length n).
First differences are A088517.
Golomb-type sequences over various substrates (from Glen Whitney, Oct 12 2015):
A000002 and references therein (over periodic sequences),
A109167 (over nonnegative integers),
A080605 (over odd numbers),
A080606 (over even numbers),
A080607 (over multiples of 3),
A169682 (over primes),
A013189 (over squares),
A013322 (over triangular numbers),
A250983 (over integral sums of itself).
Applying "ee Rabot" to this sequence gives A319434.
See also A095114.

a001462 n = a001462_list !! (n-1)
a001462_list = 1 : 2 : 2 : g 3  where
   g x = (replicate (a001462 x) x) ++ g (x + 1)
-- Reinhard Zumkeller, Feb 09 2012

[ n eq 1 select 1 else 1+Self(n-Self(Self(n-1))) : n in [1..100] ]; // Sergei Haller (sergei(AT)sergei-haller.de), Dec 21 2006

N:= 10000: A001462[1]:= 1: B[1]:= 1: A001462[2]:= 2:
for n from 2 while B[n-1] <= N do
  B[n]:= B[n-1] + A001462[n];
  for j from B[n-1]+1 to B[n] do A001462[j]:= n end do
end do:
seq(A001462[j],j=1..N); # Robert Israel, Oct 30 2012

a[1] = 1; a[n_] := a[n] = 1 + a[n - a[a[n - 1]]]; Table[ a[n], {n, 84}] (* Robert G. Wilson v, Aug 26 2005 *)
GolSeq[n_]:=Nest[(k = 0; Flatten[# /. m_Integer :> (ConstantArray[++k,m])]) &, {1, 2}, n]
GolList=Nest[(k = 0;Flatten[# /.m_Integer :> (ConstantArray[++k,m])]) &, {1, 2},7]; AGolList=Accumulate[GolList]; Golomb[n_]:=Which[ n <= Length[GolList], GolList[[n]], n <= Total[GolList],First[FirstPosition[AGolList, ?(# > n &)]], True, $Failed] (* _JungHwan Min, Nov 29 2015 *)

a = [1, 2, 2]; for(n=3, 20, for(i=1, a[n], a = concat(a, n))); a /* Michael Somos, Jul 16 1999 */

{a(n) = my(A, t, i); if( n<3, max(0, n), A = vector(n); t = A[i=2] = 2; for(k=3, n, A[k] = A[k-1] + if( t--==0, t = A[i++]; 1)); A[n])}; /* Michael Somos, Oct 21 2006 */

a=[0, 1, 2, 2]
for n in range(3, 21):a+=[n for i in range(1, a[n] + 1)]
a[1:] # Indranil Ghosh, Jul 05 2017

a(n) = phi^(2-phi)*n^(phi-1) + E(n), where phi is the golden number (1+sqrt(5))/2 (Marcus and Fine) and E(n) is an error term which Vardi shows is O( n^(phi-1) / log n ).
a(1) = 1; a(n+1) = 1 + a(n+1-a(a(n))). - Colin Mallows
a(1)=1, a(2)=2 and for a(1) + a(2) + ... + a(n-1) < k <= a(1) + a(2) + ... + a(n) we have a(k)=n. - Benoit Cloitre, Oct 07 2003
G.f.: Sum_{n>0} a(n) x^n = Sum_{k>0} x^a(k). - Michael Somos, Oct 21 2006
a(A095114(n)) = n and a(m) < n for m < A095114(n). - Reinhard Zumkeller, Feb 09 2012 [First inequality corrected from a(m) < m by Glen Whitney, Oct 06 2015]
Conjecture: a(n) >= n^(phi-1) for all n. - Jianing Song, Aug 19 2021
a(n) = A095114(n+1) - A095114(n). - Alan Michael Gómez Calderón, Dec 21 2024 after Ralf Stephan

A002858 Ulam numbers: a(1) = 1; a(2) = 2; for n>2, a(n) = least number > a(n-1) which is a unique sum of two distinct earlier terms.

Original entry on oeis.org

1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 11, 13, 16, 18, 26, 28, 36, 38, 47, 48, 53, 57, 62, 69, 72, 77, 82, 87, 97, 99, 102, 106, 114, 126, 131, 138, 145, 148, 155, 175, 177, 180, 182, 189, 197, 206, 209, 219, 221, 236, 238, 241, 243, 253, 258, 260, 273, 282, 309, 316, 319, 324, 339

Offset: 1

N. J. A. Sloane

Ulam conjectured that this sequence has density 0. However, calculations up to 6.759*10^8 (Jud McCranie) indicate that the density hovers near 0.074.
A plot of the first 3 million terms shows that they lie very close to the straight line 13.51*n, so even if we cannot prove it, we believe we now know how this sequence grows (see the plots in the links below). - N. J. A. Sloane, Sep 27 2006
After a few initial terms, the sequence settles into a regular pattern of dense clumps separated by sparse gaps, with period 21.601584+. This pattern continues up to at least a(n) = 5*10^6. (This comment is just a qualitative statement about the wavelike distribution of Ulam numbers, not meant to imply that every period includes Ulam numbers.) - David W. Wilson
_Don Knuth_ (Sep 26 2006) remarks that a(4952)=64420 and a(4953)=64682 (a gap of more than ten "dense clumps"); and there is a gap of 315 between a(18857) and a(18858).
1,2,3,47 are the only values of x < 6.759*10^8 such that x and x+1 are both Ulam numbers. - Jud McCranie, Jun 08 2001.  This holds through the first 28 billion Ulam numbers - Jud McCranie, Jan 07 2016.
From Jud McCranie on David W. Wilson's illustration, Jun 20 2008: (Start)
The integers are shown from left to right, top to bottom, with a dot where there is an Ulam number. I think his plot is 216 wide. The local density of Ulam numbers goes in waves with a period of 21.6+, so his plot shows ten cycles.
When they are arranged that way you can see the waves. The crests of the density waves don't always have Ulam numbers there but the troughs are practically void of Ulam numbers. I noticed that the ratio of that period (21.6+) to the frequency of Ulam numbers (1 in 13.52) is very close to 8/5. (End)
a(50000000) = 675904508. - Jud McCranie, Feb 29 2012
a(100000000) = 1351856726. - Jud McCranie, Jul 31 2012
a(1000000000) = 13517664323. - Jud McCranie, Aug 28 2015
a(28000000000) = 378485625853 - Philip Gibbs & Jud McCranie, Sep 09 2015
3 (=1+2) and 131 (=62+69) are the only two Ulam numbers in the first 28 billion Ulam numbers that are the sum of two consecutive Ulam numbers. - Jud McCranie, Jan 09 2016
Named after the Polish-American scientist Stanislaw Ulam (1909-1984). - Amiram Eldar, Jun 08 2021

Steven R. Finch, Mathematical Constants, Cambridge, 2003, Section 2.16.2.
Richard K. Guy, Unsolved Problems in Number Theory, C4.
Donald E. Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 4A, Section 7.1.3.
N. J. A. Sloane, A Handbook of Integer Sequences, Academic Press, 1973 (includes this sequence).
N. J. A. Sloane and Simon Plouffe, The Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences, Academic Press, 1995 (includes this sequence).
James J. Tattersall, Elementary Number Theory in Nine Chapters, Cambridge University Press, 1999, page 116.
Marvin C. Wunderlich, The improbable behavior of Ulam's summation sequence, pp. 249-257 of A. O. L. Atkin and B. J. Birch, editors, Computers in Number Theory. Academic Press, NY, 1971.
David Zeitlin, Ulam's sequence {U_n}, U_1=1, U_2=2, is a complete sequence, Notices Amer. Math. Soc., 22 (No. 7, 1975), Abstract 75T-A267, p. A-707.

Jud McCranie, Table of n, a(n) for n = 1..10000
Richard A. Becker, Plot of residuals a(n) - 13.5167*n for n <= 3000000, postscript file [uses Jud McCranie's values of a(n)].
Richard A. Becker, Plot of residuals a(n) - 13.5167*n for n <= 3000000, pdf file [uses Jud McCranie's values of a(n)].
Thomas Bloom, Problem 342, Erdős Problems.
Henning Fernau and Kshitij Gajjar, The Space Complexity of Sum Labelling, arXiv:2107.12973 [cs.DS], 2021.
Steven R. Finch, Ulam s-Additive Sequences. [From Steven Finch, Apr 20 2019]
Steven R. Finch, Stolarsky-Harborth Constant.
Steven R. Finch, Stolarsky-Harborth Constant. [From the Wayback machine]
Philip Gibbs, An Efficient Way to Compute Ulam Numbers.
Philip Gibbs, A Conjecture for Ulam Sequences.
Philip Gibbs and Judson McCranie, The Ulam Numbers up to One Trillion, (2017).
Shyam Sunder Gupta, Ulam Numbers. In: Exploring the Beauty of Fascinating Numbers. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Singapore, (2025).
Alois P. Heinz, Ulam spiral of Ulam numbers.
Donald E. Knuth, Downloadable programs
Noah Kravitz and Stefan Steinerberger, Ulam Sequences and Ulam Sets, arXiv:1705.01883 [math.CO], 2017.
Borys Kuca, Structures in Additive Sequences, arXiv:1804.09594 [math.NT], 2018. See p. 3.
Jud McCranie, Density 10^2 to 10^12
Jud McCranie, Density 10^4 to 10^12
Jud McCranie, Density 10^6 to 10^12
J. W. Moon, R. K. Guy, and N. J. A. Sloane, Correspondence, 1973.
Ed Pegg, Jr., Graph of 10^6 terms of a(n) - 13.5*n.
Popular Computing (Calabasas, CA), Sieves: Problem 43, Vol. 2 (No. 13, Apr 1974), pp. 6-7. This is Sieve #8. [Annotated and scanned copy]
R. Queneau, Sur les suites s-additives, J. Combin. Theory, A12 (1972), 31-71.
Bernardo Recamán, Questions on a sequence of Ulam, Amer. Math. Monthly, Vol. 80, No. 8 (1973), pp. 919-920.
Ivano Salvo and Agnese Pacifico, Computing Integer Sequences: Filtering vs Generation (Functional Pearl), arXiv:1807.11792 [cs.PL], 2018.
James Schmerl and Eugene Spiegel, The regularity of some 1-additive sequences, J. Combin. Theory. Ser. A, Vol. 66, No. 1 (1994), pp. 172-175. Math. Rev. 95h:11010.
Arseniy Sheydvasser, The Ulam Sequence of the Integer Polynomial Ring, arXiv:1910.00109 [math.NT], 2019.
N. J. A. Sloane, Handwritten notes on Self-Generating Sequences, 1970 (note that A1148 has now become A005282).
Arseniy (Senia) Sheydvasser, The Ulam Sequence of Linear Integer Polynomials, J. Int. Seq., Vol. 24 (2021), Article 21.10.8.
Stefan Steinerberger, A hidden signal in the Ulam sequence, Research Report YALEU/DCS/TR-1508, Yale University, 2015.
Stefan Steinerberger, A hidden signal in the Ulam sequence, Figure 2 from Research Report YALEU/DCS/TR-1508, Yale University, 2015.
Stefan Steinerberger, The Ulam Sequence, blog post, April 12, 2016.
Stanislaw M. Ulam, On some mathematical problems connected with patterns of growth of figures, pp. 215-224 of R. E. Bellman, ed., Mathematical Problems in the Biological Sciences, Proc. Sympos. Applied Math., Vol. 14, Amer. Math. Soc., 1962 [Annotated scanned copy]
Stanislaw Ulam, Combinatorial analysis in infinite sets and some physical theories, SIAM Rev., Vol. 6, No. 4 (1964), pp. 343-355. Reprinted in Selected Papers, MIT Press, see p. 393.
Eric Weisstein's World of Mathematics, Ulam Sequence.
Wikipedia, Ulam number.
David W. Wilson, Plot of initial terms, showing their quasiperiodicity as vertical bars. The image width was chosen to include approximately 10 periods. For an explanation of this picture, see Comments above.
Robert G. Wilson v, Letter to N. J. A. Sloane, Sep. 1992.
David Zeitlin, Ulam's sequence {U_n}, U_1=1, U_2=2, is a complete sequence, Notices Amer. Math. Soc., 22 (No. 7, 1975), Abstract 75T-A267, p. A-707. (Annotated scanned copy)
Index entries for Ulam numbers

Cf. A002859 (version beginning 1,3), A054540, A003667, A001857, A007300, A117140, A214603.
First differences: A072832, A072540.
Cf. A080287, A080288, A004280 (if distinct removed from definition).
Cf. A199016, A199017, A033629, A274522.
See also the density plots in A080573 and A285884.

a002858 n = a002858_list !! (n-1)
a002858_list = 1 : 2 : ulam 2 2 a002858_list
ulam :: Int -> Integer -> [Integer] -> [Integer]
ulam n u us = u' : ulam (n + 1) u' us where
   u' = f 0 (u+1) us'
   f 2 z _                         = f 0 (z + 1) us'
   f e z (v:vs) | z - v <= v       = if e == 1 then z else f 0 (z + 1) us'
                | z - v `elem` us' = f (e + 1) z vs
                | otherwise        = f e z vs
   us' = take n us
-- Reinhard Zumkeller, Nov 03 2011

function isUlam(u, n, h, i, r)
    h == 2 && return false
    ur = u[r]; ui = u[i]
    ur <= ui && return h == 1
    if ur + ui > n
        r -= 1
    elseif ur + ui < n
        i += 1
    else
        h += 1; i += 1; r -= 1
    end
    isUlam(u, n, h, i, r)
end
function UlamList(len)
    u = Array{Int, 1}(undef, len)
    u[1] = 1; u[2] = 2; i = 2; n = 2
    while i < len
        n += 1
        if isUlam(u, n, 0, 1, i)
            i += 1
            u[i] = n
        end
    end
    return u
end
println(UlamList(59)) # Peter Luschny, Apr 07 2019

UlamList := proc(len) local isUlam, nextUlam, behead; behead := u -> u[2..numelems(u)]; isUlam := proc(n, h, u, r) local hu, tu, hr, tr; hu := u[1]; hr := r[1]; if h = 2 then return false fi; if hr <= hu then return evalb(h = 1) fi; if (hr + hu) = n then tu := behead(u); tr := behead(r); return isUlam(n, h+1, tu, tr) fi; if (hr + hu) < n then tu := behead(u): return isUlam(n, h, tu, r) fi; tr := behead(r); isUlam(n, h, u, tr) end: nextUlam := proc(n, u, r) if isUlam(n, 0, u, r) then if nops(u) = len-1 then return [op(u), n] fi; nextUlam(n+1, [op(u), n], [n, op(r)]) else nextUlam(n+1, u, r) fi end: nextUlam(3, [1, 2], [2, 1]) end:
UlamList(59); # Peter Luschny, Apr 05 2019

Ulam4Compiled = Compile[{{nmax, _Integer}, {init, _Integer, 1}, {s, _Integer}}, Module[{ulamhash = Table[0, {nmax}], ulam = init}, ulamhash[[ulam]] = 1; Do[ If[Quotient[Plus @@ ulamhash[[i - ulam]], 2] == s, AppendTo[ulam, i]; ulamhash[[i]] = 1], {i, Last[init] + 1, nmax}]; ulam]]; ulams = Ulam4Compiled[355, {1, 2}, 1]
(* Second program: *)
ulams = {1, 2}; Do[AppendTo[ulams, n = Last[ulams]; While[n++; Length[DeleteCases[Intersection[ulams, n - ulams], n/2, 1, 1]] != 2]; n], {100}]; ulams (* Jean-François Alcover, Sep 08 2011 *)
findUlams[s_List, j_Integer] := Block[{k = s[[-1]] + 1, ss = Plus @@@ Subsets[s, {j}]}, While[ Count[ss, k] != 1, k++]; Append[s, k]]; ulams = Nest[findUlams[#, 2] &, {1, 2}, 70] (* Robert G. Wilson v, Jul 05 2014 *)

aupto(N)= my(seen=vector(N), U=[]); seen[1]=seen[2]=1; for(i=1,N, if(1==seen[i], for(j=1,#U, my(sum=i+U[j]); if(sum>N, break); seen[sum]++); U=concat(U,i))); U \\ Ruud H.G. van Tol, Dec 29 2022

def isUlam(n, h, u, r):
    if h == 2: return False
    hu = u[0]; hr = r[0]
    if hr <= hu: return h == 1
    if hr + hu > n: r = r[1:]
    elif hr + hu < n: u = u[1:]
    else: h += 1; r = r[1:]; u = u[1:]
    return isUlam(n, h, u, r)
def UlamList(length):
    u = [1, 2]; r = [2, 1]; n = 2
    while len(u) < length:
        n += 1
        if isUlam(n, 0, u[:], r[:]):
            u.append(n); r.insert(0, n)
    return u
print(UlamList(59)) # Peter Luschny, Apr 06 2019

More terms from Jud McCranie

This sequence was suggested by Jens Voß, Feb 04 2003. Terms are only conjectures. Elements might be eliminated by higher terms of A005282, which was checked up to 4*10^6.

Terms through a(50) confirmed by checking against first 25000 terms of A005282. - Hugo Pfoertner, Nov 13 2021

Also A025582(n) - A010672(n-1).
A005282 is the sequence of smallest numbers such that the pairwise sums of not necessarily distinct elements are all distinct, whereas A011185 is the sequence of smallest numbers such that the pairwise sums of distinct elements are all distinct.
Sequence has negative terms; the first one is a(65) = -130.

A005282 is the sequence of smallest numbers such that the pairwise sums of not necessarily distinct elements are all distinct.

Conjecture: 2, 4 and 8 are the only terms n such that n = 2*A005282(k) for some k.

For large n the sequence consists of increasingly long runs of "33", which is the first term of A080200 (the smallest non-occurring difference in A005282), with some interspersed other terms. E.g. for n=100000..100100 we have a(n)=88 for n=100005,100021,100041,100087,100099, a(100072)=98 and otherwise a(n)=33.

Constructed using the greedy algorithm (as for A005252) except at 15th term, which is 229.

It had been conjectured that the sum of reciprocals for B_2 sequences was maximized by A005282. This sequence gives a counterexample.

cp's OEIS Frontend

A080200 Numbers that do not occur as differences between terms of the Mian-Chowla sequence A005282.

Views

Author

Keywords

Comments

References

Links

Crossrefs

Programs

Fortran

Extensions

A133097 a(n) = A005282(n) - A011185(n-1).

Views

Author

Keywords

Comments

Examples

Links

Crossrefs

Programs

Python

A080222 Record-setting differences between adjacent elements of the Mian-Chowla sequence A005282.

Views

Author

Keywords

Examples

References

Crossrefs

A133604 Elements of A005282 that are also the sum of a pair of not necessarily distinct elements of A005282.

Views

Author

Keywords

Comments

Examples

Links

Crossrefs

Programs

Python

A080933 Smallest non-occurring pairwise difference between the elements of a Mian-Chowla sequence (A005282) variant starting with (1,n).

Views

Author

Keywords

Comments

Examples

References

Links

Crossrefs

A259964 A specially constructed B_2 sequence with sum of reciprocals greater than that of the Mian-Chowla sequence A005282.

Views

Author

Keywords

Comments

Links

Crossrefs

A000002 Kolakoski sequence: a(n) is length of n-th run; a(1) = 1; sequence consists just of 1's and 2's.

Views

Author

Keywords

Comments

Examples

References

Links

Crossrefs

Programs

Haskell

Maple

Mathematica

PARI

PARI

Python

Formula

Extensions

A002024 k appears k times; a(n) = floor(sqrt(2n) + 1/2).

Views

Author

Keywords

Comments

Examples

References