4 ms·

Can you explain?

• duffmancd 6y ago
  The sum of all positive integers can be somewhat described as negative one twelfth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-d9mgo8FGk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-d9mgo8FGk
• 9000 6y ago
  It's referencing a theorem from string theory, as discussed in this Numberphile video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-I6XTVZXww https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-I6XTVZXww The catch is that this isn't valid in what we consider standard mathematics, and you can find many discussions of this online, but this one is fairly short and straightforward: http://curiouscheetah.com/BlogMath/infinity-and-string-theory/ http://curiouscheetah.com/BlogMath/infinity-and-string-theor...
• dmlerner 6y ago
  1 + 2 + 3 + ... = -1/12 total beers -1/12 beers * $3 / beer = -$0.25 negative -> pay them for taking the beer The -1/12 result is pretty widely known, but not particularly true. It's called "analytic continuation." There's a nonrigorous proof that's accessible at a highschool level - see [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1_%2B_2_%2B_3_%2B_4_%2B_%E2%8B%AF https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1_%2B_2_%2B_3_%2B_4_%2B_%E2%8B...) Delightfully, this comes up in string theory, in computing the dimensionality of spacetime.