A288493 First differences of A006878 (record new trajectory lengths of Collatz function) (Hailstone sequence).

1, 6, 1, 8, 3, 1, 3, 88, 1, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 13, 1, 26, 8, 3, 1, 26, 8, 21, 24, 6, 8, 3, 3, 26, 3, 13, 16, 11, 3, 21, 8, 3, 57, 6, 21, 39, 16, 3, 3, 26, 3, 3, 21, 13, 16, 52, 21, 3, 3, 13, 1, 39, 205, 1, 3, 3, 8, 1, 21, 1, 13, 8, 42, 37, 44, 1, 21, 31, 26, 3, 6, 1, 8, 6, 8, 13, 52, 1, 13, 3, 8, 3, 13, 8, 52, 3, 26, 3, 3, 106, 1, 13, 3, 3, 16, 3, 13, 16, 21, 13, 8

Offset: 1

Author

David Rabahy, Jun 13 2017

Keywords

• nonn

Comments

The sequence appears to return to 1 again and again forever when the minimal possible new record of just (previous record + 1) is reached at the latest possible value of 2X. Through 129 there are only 2 entries, a(17) and a(21), that are a minimal new record but aren't 2X.

Examples

			For n = 3 the difference between A006878(4) = 8 and A006878(3) = 7 is 1.
		

Links

• Hugo Pfoertner, Table of n, a(n) for n = 1..147 (from Eric Rosendaal's 3x+1 Delay Records, terms 1..129 from David Rabahy)
• Eric Roosendaal, 3x+1 Delay Records

Crossrefs

Cf. A006877, A006878, A375094.

Programs

Mathematica

(* This script is not suitable to compute a large number of terms. *)
terms = 40; steps[x0_] := steps[x0] = Block[{x = x0, nos = 0}, While[x != 1, If[Mod[x, 2] == 0, x = x/2, x = 3*x + 1]; nos++]; nos]; b[1] = 1; b[n_] := b[n] = Block[{x = b[n - 1] + 1}, record = steps[x - 1]; While[steps[x] <= record, x++]; x];
A006877 = Table[Print[b[n]]; b[n], {n, 1, terms+1}];
A006878 = steps /@ A006877;
Differences[A006878] (* Jean-François Alcover, Jun 15 2017 *)