Let $X_i$ be iid random variables with $EX_i = 0$ and $Var X_i=1$ and $S_n=X_1+\cdots+X_n$. Then the law of the iterated logarithm says almost everywhere we have $$\limsup_{n\to\infty}\frac{S_n}{\sqrt{n\log{\log{n}}}} = \sqrt{2}$$ On the other hand the central limit theorem says $$\frac{S_n}{\sqrt{n}} \to N(0,1)$$ Can anyone explain why dividing by an extra $\sqrt{\log{\log{n}}}$ should go from giving $N(0,1)$ to something bounded by the constant $\sqrt{2}$? To try to understand I considered the simple case when each $X_n$ is $N(0,1)$ so that $S_n/\sqrt{n}$ is also normally distributed as $N(0,1)$. Then $S_n/\sqrt{n\log{\log{n}}}$ is distributed as $N(0,1/\log{\log{n}})$. Then it would seem to me that to even have just $\limsup_{n\to\infty}\frac{S_n}{\sqrt{n\log{\log{n}}}} \le \sqrt{2}$ requires either $$\sum_{n=3}^\infty P\left(\frac{S_n}{\sqrt{n\log{\log{n}}}} > \sqrt{2}\right) < \infty$$ or if $$\sum_{n=3}^\infty P\left(\frac{S_n}{\sqrt{n\log{\log{n}}}} > \sqrt{2}\right) = \infty$$ then to achieve $\limsup_{n\to\infty}\frac{S_n}{\sqrt{n\log{\log{n}}}} \le \sqrt{2}$ the sets {$ \omega : \frac{S_n}{\sqrt{n\log{\log{n}}}} > \sqrt{2}$} cannot for example cover the probability space over and over infinitely forever. I don't know the value of $\sum_{n=3}^\infty P\left(\frac{S_n}{\sqrt{n\log{\log{n}}}} > \sqrt{2}\right)$ but since it is the sum of the probability of the tail ends of a bunch of normal distributions you would expect there to be no closed form even for partial sums. In the other direction for $\limsup_{n\to\infty}\frac{S_n}{\sqrt{n\log{\log{n}}}}$ to not have a value lower than $\sqrt{2}$ isn't it necessary that something like the following holds $$\sum_{n=3}^\infty P\left(\sqrt{2}-\epsilon < \frac{S_n}{\sqrt{n\log{\log{n}}}} \le \sqrt{2}\right) = \infty$$ Can anyone explain why this number $\sqrt{2}$ should pop up? I already asked the above on math.stackexchange ([link][1]) but apparently moving it here was impossible hence the duplicate post. [1]: http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/406291/intuition-of-law-of-iterated-logarithm