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Anonymous
ANSWERS: 2
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The symbol "!" is the symbol for factorial in mathematics, so "n!" would give the factorial for the variable "n". If you input any number on the calculator followed by the symbol "n!" you would be taking the factorial of that number. And in case you are not familiar with how to calculate factorial, factorial involves multiplying together each successive integer, beginning with 1, leading to that integer. For example: 1! = 1 * 1 = 1 2! = 1 * 2 = 2 3! = 1 * 2 * 3 = 6 4! = 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 = 24 5! = 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 = 120 etc... Hope this helps!
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The exclamation point isn't putting stress on the n; it's putting stress on you! Now it's time to be serious (darn it). The universal extension of n! is n! = n * (n-1) * (n-2) * ... * 2 * 1 . Meaning that 10! = 10 * (10-1) * (10-2) * ... * 2 * 1 , or 10! = 10 * 9 * 8 * 7 * 6 * 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 . Note that the elipsis (...) means that the pattern continues until you get to 1. EXCEPTION!?!? (Note: this is the ONLY mathematical exception I know of!) 0! = 1 Why is this? Well, it's used in statistics quite a bit, and it usually occurs on the denominator. If 0! = 0 , it'd be undefined every time it did. ----------------STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO GET CONFUZZLED------------------ I don't understand it yet, but I intend to find out: a factorial can be taken for n + 1/2 , where n is any integer GREATER THAN OR EQUAL TO -1. So (-1/2)! is acutally not undefined!
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