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Comments by "" (@jmitterii2) on "Numberphile v. Math: the truth about 1+2+3+...=-1/12" video.
The use of the this particular identity value -1/12 is used in describing the zero point energy of the Casmir effect; and it describes observation in experiments exactly. And in any vacuum energy zero point energy in QED uses the value -1/12 and is useful in describing all experiments and making predictions. So in that sense it is a useful value. How such a summation has such a weird value, I have no idea. I get converging, and the sum of 1+1-1+1-1... being averaged to 1/2. Numberfile was trying to describe a "cheat" method to describe without going to far into the zeta function. I think that's where they lost of all us who didn't get it, and got other people who know this subject well pissed off. All I know is the value works, but I don't don't understand the subject enough how you get -1/12... its weird. But these values are just identities. They're like their own type of number to describe an infinite series in a finite sense. So far that's how I get it.
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