As a math major at UMass Amherst, I once asked a professor a question based on an exercise buried at the end of a calculus textbook.
What happens if you add together 1 + 1/4 + 1/9 + 1/16 + 1/25 … forever?
This turns out to be a famous problem, known as the Basel problem.
Instead of brushing this question aside, he put aside office hours to write up a detailed, three-page explanation. The fact that a professor would go to such lengths to help a single student was humbling. I was inspired to continuing studying math. And the answer?
It turns out to be pi^2/6.
Happy Pi day.
https://bit.ly/2HlPyRp.
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