0=-1 (Calculus Puzzle)

[Dusk Star]

Originally Posted by RoboDesigners

I have an article here one of my math professors gave me that has a dozen "proofs" that 1=2. (She gave me this after I showed her my "proof," which happened to be in the article... I guess I didn't come up with it first...)

One that's not so hard to disprove is as follows:

0 = (1 - 1) + (1 - 1) + (1 - 1)...

Rearrange parenthesis:
0 = 1 + (-1 + 1) + (-1 + 1) + (-1 + 1)...
0 = 1 + 0 + 0 + 0....
0 = 1

(Ether's going to get this oh-so-fast...)

//Andrew

Not if the other Andrew gets there first!

after you rearrange parenthesis, you should have the one at the end that was freed up, therefore
0 = 1 + (-1 + 1) + (-1 + 1) + (-1 + 1)... ...-1
0 = 1 + 0 + 0 + 0... ...-1
0 = 0