nglasser (04/17/83)
It is not true, as previously stated by nmtvax!student, that negative numbers factorial are equal to 1. For positive integers n, Gamma(n) = (n-1)!. If we extend our definition of factorials to all real numbers using the gamma function, which as you may recall is defined as Gamma(x) = (sorry about the lack of mathematical symbols on the keyboard) the integral from 0 to infinity of e^t*t^(x-1) dt. (^ representing exponentiation.) It has been shown, and most references you look in about the gamma function will confirm this, that the gamma function does not converge for negative integers. - Nathan Glasser ..decvax!yale-comix!nglasser