Add up an infinite series of positive integers and get... -1/12. Huh?

Retro

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Wierdly, it does, but I've never quite understood the explanations. This result pops up in quantum mechanics and all sorts of other places too, so it's not just some mathematical trickery.

Here's a playlist from Numberphile of all their 7 videos covering this weirdest of results. There may be more videos added over time.



This video by Mathologer debunks the original video, saying it's a misrepresentation of what the mathematicians were trying to say. See what you think, but note that the presenter is an expert mathematician who really knows what he's talking about.

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Here's Wikipedia's take on it. Note that it's very high level with lots of squiggly maths though, so not comprehensible to most of us.

 

Retro

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Here's a new video from The Action Lab that puts this in the correct context and makes much more sense. Yes, adding up all the integers does indeed equal infinity, but it's the difference between infinities that can give this result. Head spinning yet? ;)

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