Wait... all \textit{all} the numbers?!?

What is the sum of all the real numbers?

(Assume that we start at zero and go left and right both ways in an even distribution of numbers)

Hint: A number line could help!

1 0 \infty It does not exist

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2 solutions

David Stiff
Jun 25, 2018

If we use a number line, we can see that the sum of all the positive numbers on the right are cancelled out by the sum of all the negative numbers on the left.

Thus, the sum of all real numbers is 0 \boxed{0} .

Ram Mohith
Jun 25, 2018

Both positive and negative numbers come under Real numbers. Now there are n n positive numbers and n n negative numbers of same magnitude and opposite in sign. So all of them cancel out leaving zero as the answer.

Ex : Let us take the sum of 100 -100 to + 100 +100

100 99 98 97 . . . . . . + 97 + 98 + 99 + 100 \implies -100-99-98-97- ......+97+98+99+100

So, all of them cancel out expect 0 0 . So the final answer is 0 0 .

The same is the case with n n real numbers.

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