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A280929
Number of steps required to reach the first prime when starting from n in the Collatz (or '3x+1') problem.
2
2, 3, 2, 1, 4, 1, 2, 2, 3, 1, 2, 2, 4, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 2, 2, 6, 1, 4, 3, 3, 1, 2, 2, 4, 3, 2, 4, 6, 1, 2, 5, 5, 1, 2, 3, 3, 7, 8, 2, 4, 1, 2, 4, 3, 4, 6, 2, 6, 3, 2, 3, 3, 1, 2, 4, 4, 1, 17, 5, 6, 7, 2, 2, 5, 3, 2, 6, 5, 1, 2, 2, 4, 3, 4, 4, 3, 1, 6, 8, 8, 1, 2, 3, 3, 5, 2, 2, 6, 1, 15, 5, 3, 4, 2, 5
OFFSET
1,1
COMMENTS
If n=p*2^k, where k>0 and p is some prime then a(n)=k.
If n is odd then a(n)=a(3n+1)+1.
If n is even then a(n)=1 or a(n)=a(n/2)+1.
If n is composite then a(n)=A274472(n).
LINKS
EXAMPLE
The Collatz iteration for 33 is 100, 50, 25, 76, 38, 19, 58, 29, ... 1. The first prime (19) is reached after 6 steps, so a(33)=6.
CROSSREFS
Sequence in context: A060475 A168069 A334014 * A231725 A106559 A280047
KEYWORD
nonn
AUTHOR
Dmitry Kamenetsky, Jan 11 2017
STATUS
approved