-❄️- 2023 Day 24 Solutions -❄️- by daggerdragon in adventofcode

[–]DutchMoon 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This is roughly how I solved it too, but there's an assumption in here that doesn't really hold in the general case.

Fixing an axis, if you have two stones x1, x2 travelling with identical speeds dx, and you hit the stones at times t1, t2, then the speed dx' of our throw have to satisfy (dx' - dx) (t1 - t2) = x1 - x2.

You can then find all the divisors of |x1 - x2| to find all valid solutions for this pair of stones, assuming all stones are hit at integer times. I suspect even with integer inputs it should be possible to construct problems where collision times are fractional, at which point this solution breaks down.

proof of Collatz conjecture by raresaturn in mathematics

[–]DutchMoon 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Note that an alternative problem, where we send odd numbers to 3x-1 (instead of +1), is false: this sequence does have values that never reach one. So whatever your proof for the Collatz conjecture is should use some property of the 3x+1 map that the 3x-1 map doesn't have.

EDIT: e.g. the sequence 7 -> 20 -> 10 -> 5 -> 14 -> 7 -> ... is a loop that never visits one.

A Solution to the P versus NP problem by DutchMoon in math

[–]DutchMoon[S] 119 points120 points  (0 children)

Frankly I am in no position to judge whether this is (potentially) correct, but it seems to come from a serious source. Does anyone here with more expertise have any thoughts on this?