The Sum Of All Natural Numbers Is Definitely Not -1/12

The Sum Of All Natural Numbers Is Definitely Not -1/12
mathematics-memes, infinite-series-memes, divergent-series-memes, math-proof-memes, string-theory-memes | ScienceHumor.io

The mathematical sleight of hand shown here is the infamous "proof" that 1+2+3+4+... = -1/12, which somehow transforms an obviously divergent infinite series into a negative fraction. It's like claiming you can pay off infinite debt with eight cents and change.

What makes this particularly painful to mathematicians is that this result actually appears in string theory calculations, despite violating everything we learned about convergence. The person's bewilderment perfectly captures every mathematician's internal screaming when someone casually mentions this "equality" at conferences.

Next they'll try to convince us that 0.999... ≠ 1. The horror never ends.

More Like This