Department of Energy Argonne National Laboratory Office of Science NEWTON's Homepage NEWTON's Homepage
NEWTON, Ask A Scientist!
NEWTON Home Page NEWTON Teachers Visit Our Archives Ask A Question How To Ask A Question Question of the Week Our Expert Scientists Volunteer at NEWTON! Frequently Asked Questions Referencing NEWTON About NEWTON About Ask A Scientist Education At Argonne Most difficult math problem you have encountered 
Name: mr john riddle gambleton
Status: N/A
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: N/A
Question:
What's the hardest math problem you've ever done?


Replies:
It's invariably the one that I'm working on currently. This time it's: What's the geometrical meaning of the central extension of the algebra of diffeomorphisms of the circle?

jlu

I've been working on a problem in Number Theory off and on for almost ten years called "the Collatz Conjecture" aka "the 3X + 1 problem". Let f(x) be a function defined on the positive integers such that:

f(x) = x/2 if x is even

f(x) = (3*x+1)/2 if x is odd

Then the conjecture is: iterates of f(x) will eventually reach 1 for any initial value of x. Various cash prizes have been offered for the proof or disproof of this conjecture.

hawley


Click here to return to the Mathematics Archives

NEWTON is an electronic community for Science, Math, and Computer Science K-12 Educators, sponsored and operated by Argonne National Laboratory's Educational Programs, Andrew Skipor, Ph.D., Head of Educational Programs.

For assistance with NEWTON contact a System Operator (help@newton.dep.anl.gov), or at Argonne's Educational Programs

NEWTON AND ASK A SCIENTIST
Educational Programs
Building 360
9700 S. Cass Ave.
Argonne, Illinois
60439-4845, USA
Update: June 2012
Weclome To Newton

Argonne National Laboratory