This has been doing the rounds over the internet for years, intuition tells us the equation is rubbish as the sum should be infinitely large but was given traction in the early 20th century by perhaps the greatest mathematician in history Srinivasa Ramanujan.
This equation has found its way into physics in the form of bosonic string theory.
In this post quantum field theory describes space-time as being composed of quantum harmonic oscillators, in string theory the sum of the all energies from the infinite number of oscillators is divergent or has an infinitely large value and is therefore useless as a theory.
However if there 26 dimensions which defines bosonic string theory the sum converges to a value of -1/12.
The debate on the validity of this equation is discussed.
www.smithsonianmag.com
This equation has found its way into physics in the form of bosonic string theory.
In this post quantum field theory describes space-time as being composed of quantum harmonic oscillators, in string theory the sum of the all energies from the infinite number of oscillators is divergent or has an infinitely large value and is therefore useless as a theory.
However if there 26 dimensions which defines bosonic string theory the sum converges to a value of -1/12.
The debate on the validity of this equation is discussed.
The Great Debate Over Whether 1+2+3+4..+ ∞ = -1/12
Can the sum of all positive integers = -1/12? It can, sort of...
