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I love that one, what this taught me is that infinite sums are fundamentally different from finite sums, and that when operations performed on the finite are ge
by Kranar 5y ago
I love that one, what this taught me is that infinite sums are fundamentally different from finite sums, and that when operations performed on the finite are generalized to work with the infinite, there are often ambiguities and subtleties about how to perform that generalization.
We wish to use the same familiar notation with the infinite that we do with the finite, but we must keep in mind that while they do share similarities, they are not the same operation. The way certain ambiguities are resolved in order to extend the finite to the infinite can lead to counterintuitive results and absurdities that may not even be apparent at first.
For me, seeing how one approach to generalizing infinite sums yields the -1/12 result, and how that result actually has some relevance in physics is quite profound and insightful and I am happy that you reminded me of it.