[QUOTE=henryzz;443234]I do wonder what is going through his head sometimes. The way he pushes boundaries is like a child.[/QUOTE]

Have you considered that this may be medical in nature (mental health). I think that this forum does a poor job at times of trying to engage with people who are obviously experiencing apophenia or other symptoms of psychosis. Numerology seems to be clinically significant in people who are experiencing psychosis. These 'insights' these people glean feel incredibly significant. I don't think that it is malicious, I'm sure that they are probably having a distorted/disordered time of things. Numbers and patterns can feel very engaging and comforting as the are regular and ordered and somewhat bring a sense of normalization.

I understand it is not the place of this forum to offer help to those who are experiencing symptoms of mental illness, but I think that we have an opportunity that we don't actively acknowledge. These posts on the forum are frequently disruptive, but how disrupted is the life of the individual to be engaging 'like a child' the way they do with our community?

I've used this forum for similar reasons when I was personally going through an acute psychotic episode. It's terrifying beyond anything I can describe and the ordered structure of numbers was incredibly comforting -- annoying to everyone here else because it was nonsense, but comforting to me. Some of the worst times I had during this period were when I would post something here I thought was useful and insightful -- it was not, it was pure numerology, pure gibberish -- only to be demeaned and dismissed by the community (their perspective was 100% correct and mine 100% distorted). I used this forum as a way to engage socially when I was unable to do so in daily life, to find a sense of belonging and talk about things I thought were a part of some deeper underlying beauty that resonated with my underlying condition.

I apologize for placing this in this thread, but I have been waiting for an example of this type of interaction. Mental illness and math based apophenia seem to go hand-in-hand, but ostracizing people, for something they feel is incredibly important, in this state can do serious harm. I do like when the forum has given disruptive members their own thread so they can meander, posting as much gibberish as they please.

There is no easy solution, I'm not even saying there is a solution or that anything should, or needs, to change. But I have not seen any conversation on here that has addressed this and the possible good, or harm, our community contributes in these situations.

Apologies again for posting in this inappropriate setting.

[QUOTE=flagrantflowers;443267]
There is no easy solution, I'm not even saying there is a solution or that anything should, or needs, to change. But I have not seen any conversation on here that has addressed this and the possible good, or harm, our community contributes in these situations.

Apologies again for posting in this inappropriate setting.[/QUOTE]

No apologies necessary. Raman has well over a decade of this behavior. When he first appeared on the scene his condition was much, much, much worse. Many attempts were made to contact him, his parents, his school, etc. to get him some help. I assume this eventually succeeded as he was better for several years. At the risk of making a long-distance layman's diagnosis, I believe his medications need some adjusting. Hopefully, he will see to that.

I had failed to consider that. Apologies Raman.

Gah!

[QUOTE=Dubslow;443330]Gah![/QUOTE]

11 iterations with a 3 again oh joy ...

Episode V: The Driver strikes back?

[QUOTE=ATH;443346]Episode V: The Driver strikes back?[/QUOTE]

These are not the drivers you're looking for!

[2^2*3 is not a driver. 3 is independent of 2^2, and can come and go as it pleases without any change in the power of 2]

Yeah I saw on the intro analysis link. It should be a 7 with 2^2 for it to be a driver.

But maybe 3 does not know it's not supposed to be a driver, at least it has been "driving" it up higher for a while now (step 10565-10574 and 10586-10605).

[QUOTE=ATH;443364]Yeah I saw on the intro analysis link. It should be a 7 with 2^2 for it to be a driver.

But maybe 3 does not know it's not supposed to be a driver, at least it has been "driving" it up higher for a while now (step 10565-10574 and 10586-10605).[/QUOTE]

It doesn't have to be a driver to go up consistently. 3 is an awkward case with 2^2 since it fixes the power of 2 to 2. Since [$]2^3|\sigma(2^2*3*x)[/$] and [$]2^2||2^2*3*x[/$], [$]2^2||\sigma(2^2*3*x)-2^2*3*x[/$]. x can be composite although gcd(x,6)=1.
The only way out of this is to change the power of 3.
The 3 can be eliminated if there are no factors of [$]x \equiv 2 mod 3[/$]. Each factor has a 50% chance of meeting this condition so the chance of losing the 3 is 1 in 2^a where a is the number of factors >3. As n gets larger on average the number of factors increases so it is less likely that the 3 will be lost.
The other alternative is to raise the power of the 3. This requires [$]\sigma(2^2*3*x)\equiv 2^2*3*x mod 9[/$]. Only one of the factors of x can be 2 mod 3 otherwise [$]9|\sigma(2^2*3*x)[/$]. I believe that there is a 50% chance of increasing the power of 3 if only one of the factors of x is 2 mod 3.
As you can see it isn't easy to loose the 3. We have been lucky so far.
[$]\sigma(2^2*3)=28 >24=2*(2^2*3)[/$] which means it will always rise while we have it.

Argh. [URL="http://factordb.com/sequences.php?se=1&aq=4788&action=range&fr=10612&to=10613"]Close but no cigar[/URL].

[QUOTE=Batalov;443397]Argh. [URL="http://factordb.com/sequences.php?se=1&aq=4788&action=range&fr=10612&to=10613"]Close but no cigar[/URL].[/QUOTE]

now has 2^10 on the last iteration shown.