“…just remember that this is not magic and it is not a mystery. It is mathematics.”

If I had a habit of creating those inspiring quote pictures (or whatever they are really called – you know, those slightly … kitsch … pictures of sunsets overlaid with uplifting quotes that are apocryphal more often than not), the above quote would be one of my favorites.

The credit goes to Keith Devlin and his blog Devlin’s Angle, where he posted a remarkably clear tutorial to analytic continuation in January. If you remember the internet-memetic kertuffle of “what do you mean, ?!” a couple of years ago, it is recommended reading. (I recommend it even if you do not remember that particular episode of internet history, because that equation is pretty magical.)

Even better, the blog post comes with links to equally great further reading and other stuff, especially this cool visualisation of Riemann zeta function by Grant Sanderson (22 minutes long YouTube video) that apparently prompted Devlin to write it in the first place.