How do we calculate factorials for numbers with decimal places? [duplicate]
I was playing with my calculator when I tried $1.5!$. It came out to be $1.32934038817$.
Now my question is that isn't factorial for natural numbers only? Like $2!$ is $2\times1$, but how do we express $1.5!$ like this?
$\endgroup$ 11 Answer
$\begingroup$factorial of fraction number are defind by gamma function as link is in comments
since
$n!=n\times (n-1)!$
$\Gamma(n)=(n-1)!$
$n!=n \cdot \Gamma(n)$
$\Gamma \left(\dfrac 12\right)=\sqrt\pi$
so$$1.5!= \left(\dfrac 32\right)!= \left(\dfrac 32\right) \cdot \left(\dfrac 12\right)!= \left(\dfrac 32\right) \cdot \left(\dfrac 12\right) \cdot \Gamma{\left(\dfrac 12\right)} = \dfrac 34 \sqrt \pi$$
this can be useful.
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