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Permutations & combinations (1 Viewer)

EY

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Can somebody please tell me what the ! means?
 

thunderdax

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It means find the product of that number and every positive integer less than itself.
 

wanton-wonton

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0! = 1, by convention/definition.
1! = 1
2! = 2*1 = 2
3! = 3*2*1 = 6
4! = 4*3*2*1 = 24

I hope you can see a pattern.
 

EY

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nope... it's not happening
 

David_O

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Try this then:
0! = 1
n! = n times (n-1)!

So:
1! = 1 times 0! = 1*1 = 1
2! = 2 times 1! = 2*1 = 2
3! = 3 times 2! = 3*2 = 6
and so on...
 
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EY said:
nope... it's not happening


...ok then, for example,

4! = 4 x 3 x 2 x 1

4! = four factorial.




thunderdax said:
It means find the product of that number and every positive integer less than itself.
couldn't have said it better myself.
 

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