So −T= T − 1, an equation concerning T which is satisfied only when T is equal to 1/2. Can a sum of infinitely many whole numbers somehow magically become a fraction? If you say no, you have the right to be at least a little suspicious of slick arguments like this one. But note that some people said yes, including the Italian mathematician/priest Guido Grandi, after whom the series 1 − 1 + 1 − 1 + 1 − 1 + . . . is usually named; in a 1703 paper, he argued that the sum of the series is 1/2, and moreover that this miraculous conclusion represented the creation of the universe from nothing.
