Mathematics
Unproven Mathematical Patterns
Quick fact
The Collatz conjecture, which says that repeatedly applying 'if even, divide by 2; if odd, triple and add 1' always reaches 1, has been verified for numbers up to 2^68—but remains unproven.
Why this is interesting
You've probably seen patterns like 2, 4, 6, 8... and assumed the next number is 10. But what if a pattern works for thousands of cases, yet no one can prove it always holds?