In what has to be one of the funniest blogs of watching someone solve a problem with infinity this is classic by Buzz Skyline

It's the good old 1+2+3+4+5... = -1/12

He starts arguing it is wrong but the maths peeps quickly show him his argument fails

http://physicsbuzz.physicscentral.com/2014/01/redux-does-1234-112-absolutely-not.html

So then he actually does a very smart thing and graphs it and can suddenly see the problem and what the maths is showing and the penny drops.

http://physicsbuzz.physicscentral.com/2014/02/so-what-does-1234-equal-we-give-you_11.html

And he worked it out by graphing it smile





Suddenly he sees it a large postive infinity, a large negative infinity and the bit in the middle of the curve.

Then a broken and dejected infinitarian he heads off

Originally Posted By: buzz

1+2+3+4+ . . . = -1/12 + infinity

and other similar things, but I've had enough of this stuff for now.


Perfectly clear now isn't it you just subtract away from infinity smile

Hint: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolutely_convergent#Rearrangements_and_unconditional_convergence

Last edited by Orac; 02/13/14 04:15 AM.
I believe in "Evil, Bad, Ungodly fantasy science and maths", so I am undoubtedly wrong to you.