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Lose 20 pounds -- and your sanity -- using this one weird trick! I suspect this kind of reasoning is useful in some fields for some particular kinds of infinit
by dj-wonk 13y ago
Lose 20 pounds -- and your sanity -- using this one weird trick!
I suspect this kind of reasoning is useful in some fields for some particular kinds of infinite sums, but for the particular summation problem as stated, as most people understand it, this is rubbish.
- vinceguidry 13y agoYou should watch the linked video. The logic isn't that hard to follow, and finds real-world application all over the place.
- j2kun 13y agoExcept that all the math presented in it is, strictly speaking, completely false.
- dj-wonk 13y agoI was using humor there. Yes, I am open to this kind of thinking being useful. I did watch the video. I followed the logic. (That logic is contradictory from other perspectives -- see http://www.quora.com/Mathematics/Theoretically-speaking-how-can-the-sum-of-all-positive-integers-be-1-12 http://www.quora.com/Mathematics/Theoretically-speaking-how-...). Summary: as most people understand it, the sum of all natural numbers is (a) positive (b) very large (c) not finite (d) certainly not -1/12.