The relationship between the numbers of even steps (P), the number of odd steps (I) and the odd initial value u0 of a compressed Collatz sequence that converges is as follows: I+P= E[log2⁡((3^I)*u0)]+1 Where: E(x) is the integer part of the real number x; log2(x) is the base two logarithm of the real number x; E[log2⁡(u0)] is the exponent of the biggest power of 2 that is strictly less than the odd natural number u_0; I+P is the total stopping time of the compressed sequence.