Collatz conjecture visualiser

2025/8/12

(Instructions in project)

The Collatz conjecture is a famous unsolved maths problem about repeatedly using functions on numbers (3n+1 if n is odd and n/2 if n is even). Does every number >0 eventually lead to 1?

This tool lets you explore a tree network connecting numbers together if one leads to the other. You can also enter whatever number you want and view where it is on the tree. I also tried allowing negative numbers, but it can be buggy when viewing the loops they go into.

There's also a second mode which focuses on numbers of the form 6n+4 (The ones two numbers lead to), which are represented with their n values. Some of them have a red spike (to represent chains of multiples of 3) instead of a second backward connection.

I highly recommend watching Highly Entropic Mind's video about the Collatz conjecture, it's really good: