Collatz Iterative Trajectories of All Odd Numbers Attain Bounded Values

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to study the 3x + 1 problem based on the Collatz iterative formula. It can be seen from the iterative formula that the necessary condition for the Collatz iteration convergence is that its slope being less than 1. An odd number N that satisfies the condition of a slope less than 1 after nth Collatz iterations is defined as an n-step odd number. Through statistical analysis, it is found that after nth Collatz iterations, the iterative value of any n-step odd number N that is greater than 1 is less than N, which proves that the slope less than 1 is a sufficient and necessary condition for Collatz iteration convergence.