One day Nina noticed that Jodi was walking around with her pockets stuffed full of small pieces of paper. Over a few weeks, Nina saw the pockets growing bigger and bigger till the pieces of paper began spilling out. Eventually Nina asked her what they were. Jodi reached into a pocket and handed Nina her scribblings of different patterns she had been trying. Nina had been working diligently for weeks on the Collatz conjecture, trying pattern after pattern.
