Collatz Conjecture and Barney

2010-03-11

I’ve heard of mathematical crackpots before, but I wasn’t aware they were publishing books on Amazon. The following paragraph is taken directly from the supplied product description, which was presumably written by the author himself, who claims to have a B.S. in mathematics. The last two sentences are priceless:

I discovered a method of proving the Collatz Conjecture, an unsolved problem in mathematics. The Collatz Conjecture claims that any non-zero positive integer will reach 1 if the following rules are applied: If the integer is odd, multipy by 3 and add 1 (3x+1), if it is even, divide by 2 (x/2). I noticed that there are only a finite number of possible combinations for 3-digit integers when the 3x+1 and x/2 rules are followed. I also used the fact I proved that powers of 2 added to any of the positive integers cause agreement. My brother (Michael Fleming) wrote a computer program with my instructions that proved that all integers subcoll (a chosen integer subcolls if it reaches an integer less than itself), a known sole requirement for the proof of the validity of the Collatz Conjecture. He was on the team for the special effects of the movie True Lies (nominated for an academy award in Best Special Effects), and the movie Species. He also did some of the special effects for the children’s show Barney.

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