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#1 2012-02-01 03:42:08
- Alex23
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Crazy zeta function - infinity equals negative number!?
Alright, ζ(0) = 1 + 1 + 1 + ... = -1/2. Miracles do happen!
I want to comprehend what this means but it seems to me this just supersedes quantitative math.
Is there supposed to be a qualitative limited meaning to it?
Because if you forget the outcome is from zeta and just write 1 + 1 + 1 + ... = -1/2 this clearly is nonsense alone like that, as Hardy and Littlewood thought initially of it mailed by Ramanujan.
Math gurus enlighten me. 
#2 2012-02-01 05:45:59
- bobbym
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Re: Crazy zeta function - infinity equals negative number!?
Hi Alex23;
Welcome to the forum!
The zeta function is defined like this
only when the sum converges which it clearly does not for s=0. So the above definition does not hold. Look here for how an analytic continuation is used:
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/RiemannZetaFunction.html
In mathematics, you don't understand things. You just get used to them.
90% of mathematicians do not understand 90% of currently published mathematics.
I am willing to wager that over 75% of the new words that appeared were nothing more than spelling errors that caught on.
#3 2012-02-03 06:27:48
- Alex23
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Re: Crazy zeta function - infinity equals negative number!?
I read the article. So the definition changes for that domain with gamma functions and what not.
Thanks for clearing up the definition does not hold for Re(s) < 1. In other forums people were just stating it is an unexpected result and we have to live with it and I was thinking WHAT??!, the equality is altogether wrong, meaning the sum over ones.
My question is how analytic continuation does not address a new function all together? Is it because the transformation is unique; that is the key?
Cheers!
Last edited by Alex23 (2012-02-03 06:28:30)
#4 2012-02-03 06:32:13
- bobbym
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Re: Crazy zeta function - infinity equals negative number!?
Hi Alex23;
That is something I can not answer. I only have the tiniest bit of understanding of that page. Not enough to even comment.
In mathematics, you don't understand things. You just get used to them.
90% of mathematicians do not understand 90% of currently published mathematics.
I am willing to wager that over 75% of the new words that appeared were nothing more than spelling errors that caught on.
#5 2012-02-05 22:12:04
- Stangerzv
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Re: Crazy zeta function - infinity equals negative number!?
To others, infinity is a concept not a number but to me there is even and odd infinity. To them 1+infinity=infinity but to me 1+infinity>infinity. They got all those values like 1/12 or etc because they play with the infinity as they like. If you have a function of 1-1+1-1+1..infinity, if you use their concept you would get sometimes S=1/2 yet you know when it is even, S=0 and when it is odd, S=1 and this function alternates 0 & 1 to the infinity. I think people need to respect the infinity, otherwise we would be hay-wired. I do sometimes play with the infinity and I can proof that Zeta function
is not always true and converge to value 4.#7 2012-12-16 01:08:16
- Helping hand
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Re: Crazy zeta function - infinity equals negative number!?
Did you use Euler's definition that the zeta of 2n is equal to Bernoulli of 2n times 2pi to the 2n over 2 times 2n factorial times minus 1 to the n+1th power?
If you did then it did not work because it only works for non-zero positive even integers because the Bernoulli of 0 can either be -1/2 or 1/2