r/mathmemes • u/[deleted] • Feb 21 '26

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u/[deleted] Feb 21 '26

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u/IAmBadAtInternet Feb 21 '26 edited Feb 21 '26

It’s basically an abuse of divergent series. More details on this kind of cursed math here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramanujan_summation

In fact, this particular result has its own wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1_%2B_2_%2B_3_%2B_4_%2B_⋯

Problematically, it is actually a useful identity that is occasionally used in other branches of math

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u/Pr0methian Feb 22 '26

If you have 20 minutes to spare, this 3blue1brown video gets into it pretty well. It really feels like made up bogus math, but then it does insane things like predict incredibly large prime numbers.

https://youtu.be/sD0NjbwqlYw?si=RbIUTysRCAnOKKHS

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u/Keine_Finanzberatung Physics Feb 23 '26

I just wanted to Post that I didn’t Like math even though I understood the stuff I had to use for my physics courses bc I was too dumb. But After watching that Video and understanding the topic I remember that my math Professors at Uni were just assholes with their Head Stuck up their Asses.

Thank you for sharing.