RE: NestWhile
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg32552] RE: [mg32519] NestWhile
- From: "David Park" <djmp at earthlink.net>
- Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2002 04:08:22 -0500 (EST)
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Hi Tom,
f[n_] := If[EvenQ[n], n/2, 3n + 1]
I don't think that you want NestWhile because all it will return is 1. I
assume that you would want to see the sequence or at least the length of the
run. The following statement chops off at 50 applications of f because I
don't know if you can get very long runs.
NestWhileList[f, 9, # != 1 &, 1, 50]
{9, 28, 14, 7, 22, 11, 34, 17, 52, 26, 13, 40, 20, 10, 5, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1}
This generates the runs for the first 50 integers and then displays the
length of the run and whether it was good or bad.
runs = NestWhileList[f, #, # != 1 &, 1, 100] & /@ Range[50];
{Length[#], If[Last[#] == 1, Good, Bad]} & /@ runs
{{1, Good}, {2, Good}, {8, Good}, {3, Good}, {6, Good}, {9, Good}, {17,
Good}, {4, Good}, {20, Good}, {7, Good}, {15, Good}, {10, Good}, {10,
Good}, {18, Good}, {18, Good}, {5, Good}, {13, Good}, {21, Good}, {21,
Good}, {8, Good}, {8, Good}, {16, Good}, {16, Good}, {11, Good}, {24,
Good}, {11, Good}, {101, Bad}, {19, Good}, {19, Good}, {19, Good}, {101,
Bad}, {6, Good}, {27, Good}, {14, Good}, {14, Good}, {22, Good}, {22,
Good}, {22, Good}, {35, Good}, {9, Good}, {101, Bad}, {9, Good}, {30,
Good}, {17, Good}, {17, Good}, {17, Good}, {101, Bad}, {12, Good}, {25,
Good}, {25, Good}}
I think this is one of those problems in which it is very difficult to
determine in general if and when it will stop.
David Park
djmp at earthlink.net
http://home.earthlink.net/~djmp/
> From: Tom De Vries [mailto:tdevries at shop.westworld.ca]
To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
>
> Hello!
>
> I know this is a simple question, hope someone can help me out.....
>
> If I define the function
>
> f[n_] := If[EvenQ[n], n/2, 3n + 1]
>
>
> I can then apply NestList and generate a nice number loop......
>
> NestList[f, 7, 23]
>
> I want to use NestWhileList and stop when the generated number is
> a 1. How
> do I do that?
>
> Thanks for the help,
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Tom De Vries
>
>