1. Standard membergenius
    Wayward Soul
    Your Blackened Sky
    Joined
    12 Mar '02
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    15128
    07 Mar '05 11:33
    this may be a silly question, but how can a calculator find a factorial? mine gave me 1.5!=1.329340388...so, yeah...
  2. Standard memberroyalchicken
    CHAOS GHOST!!!
    Elsewhere
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    29 Nov '02
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    17317
    07 Mar '05 12:15
    Originally posted by genius
    this may be a silly question, but how can a calculator find a factorial? mine gave me 1.5!=1.329340388...so, yeah...
    It probably evaluates the integral of exp(-x)*x^1.5 between x=0 and some very large number.
  3. Joined
    30 Oct '04
    Moves
    7813
    07 Mar '05 13:50
    Perhaps it takes the value of the Euler Gama function that extends the "factorial" for all real numbers and for the natural numbers it satisfies the equality:
    G(n+1) = n!

    Take a look here, where it is explained more thoroughly:
    http://mathworld.wolfram.com/GammaFunction.html

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