MathDB
IOQM P20 2024

Source:

September 8, 2024

Problem Statement

On a natural number nn you are allowed to operations : (1)(1) multiply nn by 22 or (2)(2) subtract 33 from nn. For example starting with 88 you can reach 1313 as follows : 816138 \longrightarrow 16 \longrightarrow 13. You need two steps and you cannot do in less than two steps. Starting from 1111, what is the least number of steps required to reach 121121?