ASTOUNDING: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + ... = -1/12

What Hacker News said

Strong rec alternize · 2014-01 · on “1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + ... = - 1/12”

this infinite sum was featured in a numberphile video a few days ago with a entraining and simple "proof": [this video] and a more advanced explanation & proof in the bonus-video: [LINK] you should definitely subscribe to numberphile ( [LINK] ) and their sister channel computerphile ( [LINK] ) on youtube :)

Recommends yelnatz · 2014-01 · on “1 + 2 + 3 + .. = -1/12”

Watch this entertaining Numberphile video about this topic: [this video] Apparently it's used in many areas in Physics.

Recommends barbs · 2021-10 · on “Conterintuitive facts in mathematics, CS, and physics”

This is a good video explaining it: [this video] Although it relies on a particular interpretation of the left side of the equation, it's used in some areas of physics.

Cites hencq · 2017-09 · on “The Equifax breach may be the worst leak of personal info ever”

There are a lot. I thought this one was really funny [0]. This one I found very interesting [1]. Somewhat different, is the Hello Internet [2] podcast, which is by Grey and Brady Haran who you might know from the Numberphile youtube channel [3]. It's basically the 2 of them chatting about random stuff, but I find it very entertaining. [0] [LINK] [1] [LINK] [2] [LINK] [3] [this video]

Cites ctchocula · 2017-12 · on “Advances in number theory inspired by physics”

I learned about it through this Numberphile video: [this video] There's also a nice write-up from Terry Tao: [LINK]

Cites jyriand · 2020-10 · on “How I remember what I learn”

Few days back I stumbled upon a video about Ramanujan [0] and the: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 ..(to infinity) = -1/12.(Turns out the proof in the video is incorrect or at least not concise enough, because you can't do that with divergent series). So that got me curious and I wanted to understand what's going on. How can 1 + 2 .. etc equal to -1/12 and not infinity. So I went on small binge watching videos to get an intuition and understanding about this. This led me to Riemann Hypothesis and Euler's identities and complex numbers etc. Now I have a list of books that I want to skim/read to get a historical context around these problems. I don't take any notes just yet, because I don't know what is importa

Cites 9000 · 2021-01 · on “Ask HN: Anyone know any funny programming jokes?”

It's referencing a theorem from string theory, as discussed in this Numberphile video: [this video] 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: [LINK]

Critical asdfjkln · 2014-12 · on “Almost all numbers contain the digit “3” [video]”

I think the quality of numberphile videos vary quite considerably. The one you linked is a rather honest explanation of the idea of comparing the size of sets through bijections and a good explanation of Cantors diagonal argument. As a mathematician I'm quite fine with it. The one linked in the submission is more of an obvious statement hidden by obscure use of language. Slightly silly, but not very bad. The worst offender with "magic" is the one with the Riemann zeta function [1], which went viral a while ago. The problem here is that they get people started off on the wrong foot, confusing them with wrong arguments and hidden definitions. Now, if people really want to understand why this c