ASTOUNDING: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + ... = -1/12I wonder if they are teaching this Bullsh*t on purpose to make sure nothing useful can happen in the field of physics. I can only hope that this ISN'T they way that they are teaching it and this is just some egoistic jerk trying to make himself look smart.
As they said on Big Bang Theory. "The best you can say about anyone's String theory is that its internally consistent "
The problem is in his very first step. he writes it as a series.. but then declares the sum of the Series to be an average.
The sum of a MATHEMATICAL SERIES not an AVERAGE. _ At no point in that first series could you stop it (even at an infinite point) and have 1/2 - it will still be zero or one. Now perhaps saying the average of that series is 1/2 very useful in physics, as you might have all sort of quantum values ( that essentially go between state one and state two with some probability Y) can effectively and usefully be reduced to an average.
So in the first step he take s the average but fails to write the result AS an average. Its the AVERAGE of S1 he is dealing with, NOT S1. An average mathematically expressed is SUM(N1,N2,N3,N4) /<number of N> - which in a string of ones and zeros will be 1/2 Hurrah.
But you want to pass the course right? So you better start acting like a series is the same thing as the sum of that series. So what you get is a bunch of very smart people diverting their energy and intelligence into looking at systems based on a false premise - that a infinite summation can (always - at least pertaining to String theory physics and the phenomena it seeks to explain) be accurately expressed by an average of the sum.
I haven't studied string theory, but if they are using this obviously wrong ( not counter intuitive) calculation as the basis of it, no wonder there is no way to test a damn thing. Its all imaginary and made up. I can only assume this is because someone in the government wanted to stall any useful work in the field of physics.
Now, I am sure there is a Physicist out there who disagrees, and they are welcome to take a shot at correcting my ignorance. I only know Math you see. But I fear at best this video is a gross mis-characterization of the actual math being taught, and at worst its sabotage of young minds. Yes I understand that Light comes in Quanta., and its sometimes a wave ( sorta-kinda like an infitie summation) and at others a particle ( a Zero or a One) but I also understand that both the concept of a wave and the concept of a particle are HUMAN CONSTRUCTS. Models that we use to think about this thing we are observing. Its entirely possible that the thing we are observing is neither, and that both models are wrong. The fact that it behaves one way in one circumstance and another in another, it almost clinching proof of it. Its also useful to keep in mind that a model can be wrong ( Bohr atom, or the really complexe machines that calculated the epicyles and retrograde motion of the planets..)
Just because a model yields accurate answers is no proof its an accurate representation of reality.
And yes, 1+2+3+4...+N does not equal -1/12 because it is not (1+2+3+4+5+...+N)/N
and I don't need a Doctorate in String Theory to know it.