maciejstanek/collatz

Generate images based on Collatz conjecture trees

Collatz conjecture visualization

This project is all about reproducing somthing similar to the visualization of the Collatz conjecture presented at Numberphile YouTube channel.

Usage

make
./collatz 8000 0.85 -0.35 5 30 16 20
eog out.png

collatz's Issues

Reduce unnecessary calculations for overlapping branches

Reduce unnecessary calculations for overlapping branches. This might be done by finding common prefixes of the generated sequences.

Issues to resolve before:

• Bezier curves are probably not the best idea;
• I would have to probably figure out where this shortened branch should be attached. Maybe I will save at each segment its position and then I will run a DFS on it.

Unwanted size limit

The method of generating images via a shell script comes with some unwanted consequences - there is a limit of the command length in bash. As a result, a script generating a tree of 9000 branches cannot be rendered.

Solution: split generation process into steps of approximately 1000 commands and use intermediate image files. This could allow for even adding some kind of progress bar.