Seeking a math-related article about strange infinite series

Post date: 2019-09-13 14:14:32
Views: 178
My Google-foo is failing me. About a month ago, I started reading a very interesting article about a topic in mathematics. I read only the first few paragraphs before I got distracted by something. Now I want to finish the article, but I can't find it.

I'm not a mathematician, so I might be getting some details wrong, but this is how I remember it. The article talked about infinite series that seem like they're going to converge to a specific value (like pi or e), but then unexpectedly start to diverge away from that value after X number of terms. And as I recall, X can be fairly small, like 20 terms. Or, in some cases, it can be huge, like 10^10 terms.

I can't remember if the article had some overall point beyond just describing these strange series, but I know it wasn't an academic paper. It was published in some kind of popular outlet, like Quanta, Nautilus, or Seed.

It's not in my browser history, and I've had no success in Googling it. It's possible that I'm not remembering the specifics correctly, so I might be using the wrong search terms.
Number of Comments
Please click Here to read the full story.
 
Other Top and Latest Questions:
Movie: Ragtime
Movie: Melancholia
AEW Collision: July 5, 2025: 100th Episode
Book: The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions
Why are those black and yellow storage totes everywhere?
Answered: [New Premium Plugin] Q2A Avatar Cropper (square image 1:1)
Here’s what the endowment tax in Trump's 'big beautiful bill' may mean for your college tuition
S&P 500 struggles for a second day as Trump says no extensions will be granted to Aug. 1 trade deadline: Live updates
'Big beautiful bill' may help some seniors on Social Security. But it doesn't eliminate taxes on benefits
'Free money' from Trump accounts is a 'no-brainer,' says expert—but other options may be better