Related papers: Just another solution to the Basel Problem
Euler's solution in 1734 of the Basel problem, which asks for a closed form expression for the sum of the reciprocals of all perfect squares, is one of the most celebrated results of mathematical analysis. In the modern era, numerous proofs…
Because of its relation to the distribution of prime numbers, the Riemann zeta function {\zeta} (s) is one of the most important functions in mathematics. The zeta function is defined by the following formula for any complex number s with…
The Basel problem, solved by Leonhard Euler in 1734, asks to resolve $\zeta(2)$, the sum of the reciprocals of the squares of the natural numbers, i.e. the sum of the infinite series: \begin{equation}…
A simple proof of Euler's formula which states that the sum of the reciprocals of all natural numbers squared equals $\pi^2/6$ is presented based on the distribution theory introduced by Laurent Schwartz. Additional identities are obtained…
Leonhard Euler likely developed his summation formula in 1732, and soon used it to estimate the sum of the reciprocal squares to 14 digits --- a value mathematicians had been competing to determine since Leibniz's astonishing discovery that…
Some time ago Wastlund reformulated the Basel problem in terms of a physical system using the proportionality of the apparent brightness of a star to the inverse square of its distance. Inspired by this approach, we give another physical…
By doing a slight change to a beautiful and widely unknown argument by E. L. Stark [E. L. Stark, Application of a Mean Value Theorem for Integrals to Series Summation, Amer. Math. Monthly 85 (1978) 481--483.] we get a candidate to be…
We present an astonishingly simple and elegant proof of the celebrated Basel problem.
During a first St. Petersburg period Leonhard Euler, in his early twenties, became interested in the Basel problem: summing the series of inverse squares (posed by Pietro Mengoli in mid 17th century). In the words of Andre Weil (1989) "as…
Euler had considered the problem of finding three integers whose sum, product, and also the sum of the products of the integers, taken two at a time, are all perfect squares. Euler's methods of solving the problem lead to parametric…
Euler explored the problem of finding three numbers such that the sum or difference of any two of them is a perfect square. He discovered a parametric solution represented by polynomials of degree 18 and identified the smallest of these…
The purpose of this paper is to present series expansions for even powers of the number $\pi$. This is accomplished by generalizing Euler's method for solving the Basel Problem, which was published in 1735. We employ elementary symmetric…
The number $\frac{\pi ^{2}}{6}$ is involved in the variance of several distributions in statistics. At the same time it holds $\sum\nolimits_{k=1}^{\infty }k^{-2}= \frac{\pi ^{2}}{6}$, which solves the famous Basel problem. We first provide…
We evaluate several arctangent and logarithmic integrals depending on a parameter. This provides a closed form summation of certain series and also gives integral and series representation of some classical constants.
This translation has been published in Stephen Hawking (ed.), "God Created the Integers", published in 2007 by Running Press. There may have been some changes to the final published version and this copy. This is a translation from the…
In this article, we provide a new elementary proof of the Basel problem.
Historically known as the Basel problem, evaluating the Riemann zeta function at two has resulted in numerous proofs, many of which have been generalized to compute the function's values at even positive integers. We apply Parseval's…
This is a translation from the Latin of Euler's "Problema algebraicum de inveniendis quatuor numeris ex datis totidem productis uniuscuiusque horum numerorum in summas trium reliquorum", Opera Postuma 1 (1862), 282-287, reprinted in…
Euler wants to find rational numbers (integers) x and y such that x+y is a square and x^2+y^2 is a fourth power. He parametrizes these with two other variables that satisfy certain equations.
Translation from the Latin original, "Inventio summae cuiusque seriei ex dato termino generali" (1735). E47 in the Enestrom index. In this paper Euler derives the Euler-Maclaurin summation formula, by expressing y(x-1) with the Taylor…