The Riemann zeta function states that for every ,
.
Sometimes these sums are divergent but using analytic continuation, you can get a finite answer.
Find
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First of all, write the Taylor Expansion for sin ( s )
sin ( s ) = k = 1 ∑ ∞ ( 2 k + 1 ) ! ( − 1 ) k + 1 s 2 k + 1
Then we can verify that
π s sin ( π s ) = k = 1 ∑ ∞ ( 2 k + 1 ) ! ( − 1 ) k + 1 ( π s ) 2 k = k = 1 ∏ ∞ ( 1 − k 2 s 2 )
And expanding the product...
k = 1 ∏ ∞ ( 1 − k 2 s 2 ) = 1 − ζ ( 2 ) s 2 + ( 1 2 × 2 2 1 + 1 2 × 3 2 1 + ⋯ ) s 4 + ⋯
But the Taylor Expansion is unique, which means that all the coefficients are the same (in both expansions). Therefore
ζ ( 2 ) = 3 ! π 2 = 6 π 2 ≈ 1 . 6 4 4
Where the left-hand side came from the infinite product and the right-hand side came from the infinite sum.