probvious
adjEtymology Blend of probabilistically + obvious. Coined by American mathematician John Horton Conway in 2013.
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Computing, Computing theory, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences Able to be shown to hold with very high confidence via heuristic arguments, but not formally provable.
- For the Collatz conjecture, as written in condensed form, the map is scaling by 1#47;2 or 3#47;2 with equal probability, so the expected growth factor is #92;sqrt#123;3#47;4#125;lt;1}. Thus, we may argue that the map should probviously cycle back to 1. Nevertheless, in a postscript, Conway wrote that the Collatz conjecture is very likely unsettleable.2023, Peter Lynch, “Amusical Permutations and Unsettleable Problems”, in ThatsMaths:
- Related terms
- quasitrivial