Typo in A074473

[Lßbos ElemÚr]

On 15 Sep 2006, at 16:40, N. J. A. Sloane wrote:

> Jose Brox commented (correctly) that A074473 is somewhat unsatisfactory.

what it means   "somewhat" ?

> I am changing the description and adding a new version A102419
> which will serve as a bridge with A060445.
> 
> These changes won't be visible until the
> next update, which may not be for a few
> days - I am in the middle of a huge update,
> trying to get caught up with commenmts
> from the past two weeks
> 
> NJAS

I guess I  know what is one of your problem...:
  in every iteration when speaking about a segment of an
  iteration-list you can include or exclude the initial and/or
  terminal  (eg fixed point) entry. Just like in case of 
  variants of an interval (open, closed, semiclosed from
  left or right...).
Consequently and formally  length concepts can
  be defined in 4 different manner.
This is a question of convention  similar to Fahrenheit vs Celsius..
or Arabian vs Roman numbers like: I,II,III,IV,XIV,HIV,etc...
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Concerning the name using  "...time"  like terminology..
I do not care. However the 4 possible definitions with
any choice of name still remains independent.
And not specific to Collatz-iteration.... 
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There is a vast,huge philosophical literature of
connection time with natural numbers including intuitionism
as well.
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For Collatz f(1)=1 has to be fixed.... Without this fixation
Wolfram Mathematica and other language programs do not work....
Concerning A074473(1) either 1 or arbitrary 0 is legitimate but
fixation of Collatz(1)=1 is desirable to avoid 1,4,2,1,4,2,1,...cycle.


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All the best
Labos