Not really. The left side comes from trying to evaluate the Reimann zeta function at a point outside its domain, and the right side comes from evaluating the analytic continuation of the zeta function at the same point. The deepest truth it reveals is that applying the definition of a function outside its domain can give you nonsense results.
It’s one of those ideas like Scrödinger’s cat or pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, where something that was intended to illustrate an absurdity is instead taken as representing some amazing and unintuitive truth.
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + … = -1/12
Under very special circumstances an argument can be made for this, at least
Not really. The left side comes from trying to evaluate the Reimann zeta function at a point outside its domain, and the right side comes from evaluating the analytic continuation of the zeta function at the same point. The deepest truth it reveals is that applying the definition of a function outside its domain can give you nonsense results.
It’s one of those ideas like Scrödinger’s cat or pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, where something that was intended to illustrate an absurdity is instead taken as representing some amazing and unintuitive truth.
Never understood those circumstances, but I choose to believe that all even numbers summed are -2/12 and all odd numbers therefore 1/12.
That’s where I assumed it was going.