Unexpected Factorial@sopuli.xyzEnglish · 2 months ago

a Linux Magazine from the distant future

sopuli.xyz

a Linux Magazine from the distant future

sopuli.xyz

schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de to

Unexpected Factorial@sopuli.xyzEnglish · 2 months ago

Chat

klu9
link
fedilink
English
arrow-up
2·
2 months ago

Unexpected Factorial@sopuli.xyz

unexpectedfactorial@sopuli.xyz

Create a post

You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: [email protected]

When you use an exclamation mark with a number, you’re actually implying it’s not a normal number any more. It’s a factorial!

Ok, so how does this work?

5!=1×2×3×4×5=120

6!=720

These numbers get really large. For example:

15!≈1.3×10^12

So, next time you see a headline with 2000! in it, you’ll know what to expect.

There are also double factorials (n!!) and iterated factorials (n!)!, and they aren’t the same thing. Just add more exclamation marks and you get multifactorial. Check wikipedia to see how spicy it gets.

Visibility: Public

This community can be federated to other instances and be posted/commented in by their users.

2 users / day
2 users / week
40 users / month
51 users / 6 months
3 local subscribers
179 subscribers
12 Posts
43 Comments
Modlog

mods:
Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz