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Concept

Harmonic series

A geometric illustration featuring intersecting lines forming an 'X' within a square, set against a dark, cloudy background, symbolizing the harmonic series concept.

The infinite sum 1 + 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/4 + …, whose terms shrink toward zero but whose partial sums grow without bound. Nicole Oresme proved its divergence in the fourteenth century by grouping terms in expanding blocks, each summing to at least one half. The growth is logarithmic: the sum of the first n terms is approximately ln(n) + 0.577. Reaching a partial sum of 100 takes more than 10⁴³ terms.

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