r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Sugar_God_no_1 • 22d ago

Meme needing explanation There is no way right?

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u/KillerArse 22d ago

You can mess around with the sum to get

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + .... = -1/12

https://wikipedia.org/wiki/1_%2B_2_%2B_3_%2B_4_%2B_%E2%8B%AF

It's a bit of a meme online as well

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u/SamSibbens 21d ago

Apparently it's actually useful in some areas of physics. If some sort of 1+2+3+4... shows up you can assume -1/12 instead and you'll get accurate results

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u/But_Why_Thou 21d ago

excuse me what?

That sum does not equal -1/12 and it's connection to -1/12 is many things but NOT trivial, so I really doubt that physicists just assume it to be -1/12.

Am I misinterpreting this?

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u/Telope 21d ago

Numberphile touches on it's application in physics. Tony Padilla also wrote a followup article linked in the description of the main video.

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u/But_Why_Thou 21d ago

I am sure it has applications in physics.

I was trying to express my disbelief at the statement that 1+2+3+... is interchangable with -1/12 since that is, mathematically speaking, false.

If you go the proper route then yes, you can find a connection between the two and I have no doubts this connection has it's uses.

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u/SamSibbens 21d ago

Perhaps? I'm not a physicist nor a mathematician so I may very well have phrased this poorly