The Basel problem As I have heard people did not trust Euler when he first discovered the formula (solution of the Basel problem)
$$\zeta(2)=\sum_{k=1}^\infty \frac{1}{k^2}=\frac{\pi^2}{6}$$
However, Euler was Euler and he gave other proofs.
I believe many of you know some nice proofs of this, can you please share it with us?

Here is an other one which is more or less what Euler did in one of his proofs.
The function $\sin x$ where $x\in\mathbb{R}$ is zero exactly at $x=n\pi$ for each integer $n$. If we factorized it as an infinite product we get
$$\sin x = \cdots\left(1+\frac{x}{3\pi}\right)\left(1+\frac{x}{2\pi}\right)\left(1+\frac{x}{\pi}\right)x\left(1-\frac{x}{\pi}\right)\left(1-\frac{x}{2\pi}\right)\left(1-\frac{x}{3\pi}\right)\cdots =$$
$$= x\left(1-\frac{x^2}{\pi^2}\right)\left(1-\frac{x^2}{2^2\pi^2}\right)\left(1-\frac{x^2}{3^2\pi^2}\right)\cdots\quad.$$
We can also represent $\sin x$ as a Taylor series at $x=0$:
$$\sin x = x - \frac{x^3}{3!}+\frac{x^5}{5!}-\frac{x^7}{7!}+\cdots\quad.$$
Multiplying the product and identifying the coefficient of $x^3$ we see that
$$\frac{x^3}{3!}=x\left(\frac{x^2}{\pi^2} + \frac{x^2}{2^2\pi^2}+ \frac{x^2}{3^2\pi^2}+\cdots\right)=x^3\sum_{n=1}^{\infty}\frac{1}{n^2\pi^2}$$
or
$$\sum_{n=1}^\infty\frac{1}{n^2}=\frac{\pi^2}{6}.$$
Here are two interesting links:

*

*Euler's papers;


*Euler’s Solution of the Basel Problem – The Longer Story an essay on the subject written by Ed Sandifer.
