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 May 1st, 2015, 10:21 PM #1 Newbie   Joined: May 2015 From: LA Posts: 2 Thanks: 0 factorial meaning Hello, I'm not sure if this is a good Critical thinking question but here goes What is the mathematical meaning of factorial? (besides its mathematical definition, n! = nx(n-1)x(n-2)....x2x1) Thanks,
 May 2nd, 2015, 02:13 AM #2 Senior Member   Joined: Jan 2012 From: Erewhon Posts: 245 Thanks: 112 It has no meaning other than that contained in its definition, the factorial of a positive integer is defined to be the product of all the positive integers less than or equal to it. CB Last edited by skipjack; May 2nd, 2015 at 02:53 PM.
 May 2nd, 2015, 02:53 AM #3 Newbie   Joined: May 2014 From: Italy Posts: 6 Thanks: 0 Wikipedia tells me: "there are n! ways to arrange n distinct objects into a sequence"...
May 2nd, 2015, 05:57 AM   #4
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Quote:
 Originally Posted by ofransen Wikipedia tells me: "there are n! ways to arrange n distinct objects into a sequence"...
That's one application of the factorial. I wouldn't call it the "meaning".
In general, mathematical "objects" do not have a "meaning" other than their definition. That's the reason mathematics is so "flexible"- you can assign a meaning for a particular application. In that sense "there are n! ways to arrange n distinct objects into a sequence" is a meaning assigned to the factorial for that particular application.

 May 2nd, 2015, 01:41 PM #5 Newbie   Joined: May 2015 From: LA Posts: 2 Thanks: 0 Thank you very much.
 May 2nd, 2015, 11:50 PM #6 Newbie   Joined: May 2014 From: Italy Posts: 6 Thanks: 0 Yes, I know, but I wasn't sure what you meant by "meaning". What is the meaning of cosine for example?

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