Are they saying that the exclamation mark is a mathematical symbol
this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2024
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Unexpected Factorial
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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.
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