Return Styles: Pseud0ch, Terminal, Valhalla, NES, Geocities, Blue Moon. Entire thread

1 − 2 + 3 − 4 + · · · = 1/4

Name: Anonymous 2009-05-01 0:38

Prove me wrong.

Name: Anonymous 2009-05-02 18:33

>>11
Yes.

For instance, you can prove by induction that 1+1/2+1/4+...+1/2^n is less than 2 for any n, but the INFINITE sum 1+1/2+1/4+... is NOT less than 2.

>>12
1+1+1+1+1+1...+1 (n "1"s) is an integer for any n, but 1+1+1+1.... is infinity, which is not an integer.

Another, possibly less stupid, example: The rationals are closed under addition, so any partial sum of 1-1/3+1/5-1/7... is a rational number, but the series sums to pi/4, which isn't rational.

>>14
>it just really obviously doesn't
you fail @ math.

>>16
Ramanujan did a lot of weird stuff that turned out to be correct, but that he didn't really justify properly (and a lot of stuff that turned out to be just wrong).

This isn't the zeta function, though (because of the signs).  From the zeta function you get 1+2+3+4+... = -1/12 since the sum is equal to the series \zeta(s)=\Sigma 1/n^s evaluated at -1. Although the series converges only for Re(s) >= 1, s != 1, the analytic continuation of the function defined by this series is holomorphic for any s != 1, and it happens that \zeta(-1)=-1/12.

Newer Posts
Don't change these.
Name: Email:
Entire Thread Thread List