Need help on a Question producing a sequence

I'm stucked on a question which produces a sequence. Can anybody help? Here's the question:

Let x(0) be any integer. Suppose the following rule is used to define a sequence of numbers based on x(0). x(k+1)=x(2)/k if x(k) is even or 3*x(k)+1 if x(k) is odd.

If the sequence stop generating value when x(k)=1 or k>500. Write a script file to show whether the sequence diverge to infinity or converge to 1.(Hint: What is needed is a 'while loop' that stops when x(k)=1 or k>500, and an 'if-else-end/ construction to implement the foregoing rule.)

I have no idea on how to implement this.

Answer 1

[Rick Rosson]

Here's a start:

   N = 500;

   x = nan(N+1,1);

   x(1) = ...

   k = 1;

   while ...

       if ...
            x(k+1) = ...
       else
            x(k+1) = ...
       end

       k = k + 1;

   end

   x = x(~isnan(x));

   N = size(x,1);

   figure;
   stem(0:N-1,x);