factorial

<mathematics>

The mathematical function that takes a natural number, N, and returns the product of N and all smaller positive integers. This is written 

 N! = N * (N-1) * (N-2) * ... * 1.
The factorial of zero is one because it is an empty product.

Factorial can be defined recursively as 

 0! = 1
 N! = N * (N-1)!	 , N > 0
The gamma function is the equivalent for real numbers.

For example, the number of ways of shuffling 52 playing cards is 52! or nearly 10^68. 52 Factorial.

Last updated: 2012-11-23

Nearby terms:

facsimile ♦ FACT ♦ fact ♦ factor ♦ factorial ♦ FAD ♦ failback ♦ failover ♦ failure

Try this search on Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Google, OneLook.

Loading