Five 0s

Given five zeroes, using any mathematical operations, can you make a total of 120?

-Ray.

Originally posted by rgoudie
Given five zeroes, using any mathematical operations, can you make a total of 120?

-Ray.

(0! + 0! + 0! + 0! + 0!)!

Originally posted by royalchicken
(0! + 0! + 0! + 0! + 0!)!

Excellent!

I love this puzzle.

-Ray.

Can you please explain how this puzzle works?

How does that total 120?

Originally posted by skims
Can you please explain how this puzzle works?

How does that total 120?

0! (factorial) is 1. So it's (1+1+1+1+1)! = 5! = 5*4*3*2*1 = 120

How is 0! equal to 1? Can someone please explain it to me?

Thanks

Originally posted by skims
How is 0! equal to 1? Can someone please explain it to me?

Thanks

It's to make the following equation work. (x!)/(y!)=(x-y)! This works for all numbers. I'll give an example, let's say x,y=3, then it would be (3!)/(3!)=(3-3)! ---> 6/6=0! 1=1 and the equation holds since 0!=1. But if it equalled zero, like you'd expect, then the equation wouldn't work.

It's similar to how x^0=1

That sounds like a botch job to me. What is the factorial of a negative number?

Originally posted by nickhawker
That sounds like a botch job to me. What is the factorial of a negative number?

Actually, my equation doesn't work. It must be some different one. I do know that the factorial of 0 is 1 though. I'll let someone with more experience (and memory 😛) take over for me in explaining this.

0! is one? That's a new one for me.

Originally posted by Coconut
0! is one? That's a new one for me.

I didn't know that either, but my calculator agrees.

Originally posted by crazyblue
I didn't know that either, but my calculator agrees.

Yeah, it is. It's just defined that way.

http://www.themathpage.com/aPreCalc/factorial.htm

This is not the first time this subject has been visited in this forum... there was a thread called 0! in this forum posted on Jun 20, 2004. Right now, it's on page 20 of this forum if you care to take a look...

or, let's see if I can copy the url:

http://www.redhotchess.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=11652

ack, tried to make it a link but dunno the bracket code for it

Originally posted by Suzianne
This is not the first time this subject has been visited in this forum... there was a thread called 0! in this forum posted on Jun 20, 2004. Right now, it's on page 20 of this forum if you care to take a look...

or, let's see if I can copy the url:

http://www.redhotchess.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=11652

ack, tried to make it a link but dunno the bracket code for it

oooh-i wondered why bowmann had dug up that old thread 😛