Before 212 BC , Archimedes had developed a method to derive a finite answer for the sum of infinitely many terms that get progressively smaller .
Before 212 BCE , Archimedes had developed a method to derive a finite answer for the sum of infinitely many terms that get progressively smaller ( such as 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 + 1/32 + ... ) .