Factorial Facts

(Click on the comic if you can't see the full image.)

(C)Copyright 2020, C. Burke. "AnthroNumerics" is a trademark of Christopher J. Burke and (x, why?).

You don't get down from an elephant, you get down from a duck!

This was originally supposed to be an English/Math fact tete-a-tete, with some piece of Shakespearean trivia. But before I could investigate any such Bardic lore, the above shower thought came to mind -- and I wasn't even in the shower at the time!

This is the way my mind works, with a bang and a whimper.

ObMath: 10!/6! = 7! is one of those lovely coincidences in math.
It occurs because 10 * 9 * 8 * 7 = 5040, as does 7 * 6 * 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1.
This is because 10 = 5 * 2, 9 = 3 * 3, and 8 = 4 * 2. Then multiply that extra 3 and 2, and you get 6.
So 10 * 9 * 8 * 7 = 5 * 2 * 3 * 3 * 4 * 2 * 7 = 7 * (3 * 2) * 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 [* 1, of course].

Another example of this is 6!/3! = 5!, but this is pretty much a trivial case since 3! = 6.




Come back often for more funny math and geeky comics.