OFFSET
1,2
COMMENTS
Some numbers appear to grow indefinitely under these rules, but it is possible that they may eventually cycle at some point. All numbers up to 50 either cycle or transform to another number that cycles (typically 1). 51 is the first open case: it may eventually cycle or may continue to grow indefinitely.
EXAMPLE
23 is a member of this sequence. 23 is congruent to 3 mod 4. As a result, 23 transforms to 23*7+1 = 162. From there 162 -> 81 -> 244 -> 122 -> 61 -> 184 -> 92 -> 46 -> 23. 23 is the least member of this cycle.
49 is not a member of this sequence because it eventually reduces to 19, which cycles.
PROG
(Python)
a = 1
b = 1
prev = []
keep = []
count = 0
while b < 51:
....keep.append(a)
....flag1 = False
....flag2 = False
....if a % 2 == 0:
........a /= 2
....elif a % 4 == 1:
........a = a*3+1
....else:
........a = a*7+1
....if count > 50:
........b += 1
........a = b
........count = 0
........keep = []
....if keep.count(a) == 2 and a not in prev and a <= 50:
........prev.append(a)
........count = 0
........keep = []
........b += 1
........a = b
....count += 1
print(sorted(prev))
# David Consiglio, Jr., Feb 01 2016
CROSSREFS
KEYWORD
nonn,more
AUTHOR
David Consiglio, Jr., Feb 01 2016
EXTENSIONS
Corrected and edited by David Consiglio, Jr., Apr 20 2016
STATUS
approved