General Contents
Detailed Contents
Index
Terms of a Sequence: Example 5: Factorial
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The n
th
term of a
sequence
is
. We want to determine the first 5 terms and plot them.
General Contents
Detailed Contents
Index
What is the name of this notation?
We call it
“factorial notation”
in general.
We read “
n
!” as “
n
factorial”.
How is 3!
defined
?
3! = 3*2*1
How is 4!
defined
?
4! = 4*3*2*1
Relate 4!
to
3!
4! = 4 * 3!
Determine a
1
.
Determine a
2
.
Determine a
3
.
Determine a
4
.
Determine a
5
.
When we plot this sequence, will we get a curve?
No.
Why?
A sequence is a function whose domain is the set of positive integers.
How is that different from the domain
of
The domain of
f
(
x
) is the set of real numbers ≥ 1.
Is
x
= 3.9 in the domain
of
f
(
x
)?
Yes.
Is 3.9 in the domain of our sequence?
No.
Why?
Only the positive
integers
are in the domain of our sequence.
What will our graph look like instead of a curve?
It will be a set of points, one for each positive integer.
How will we get the y-coordinates?
From the value of each term of the series, as determined above.
Plot the first 5 terms of our sequence.
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The end. If you found this helpful and would recommend that I create more pages like this one, please let me know:
Email to John Taylor
. We want to determine the first 5 terms and plot them.
. We want to determine the first 5 terms and plot them.