What came first? (Posted on 2002-12-04)

	Submitted by Cory Taylor
Rating: 3.0000 (8 votes)
Solution:	(Hide)
my answer is infinity, the series is calculated as follows. a(n)=n!/(n-1). term 1 is 1!/(1-1) or 1/0. I expect that (by visual inspection) an answer of zero may be possible somehow as well, but I can't find it. levik: Actually, 1/0 is not infinity, it's undefined, as Dulanjana can probably explain to us. It is one divided by a number APPROACHING zero (and thus infinitely small) that will result in infinity. So I guess the answer is that the fist term is undefined, unless we can come up with a different rule for the sequence.

	Subject	Author	Date
	Explanation To Puzzle Solution	K Sengupta	2008-04-29 04:53:58
	Puzzle Solution	K Sengupta	2008-03-15 03:46:58
	re: I get the sequence, but not the first number	Corey	2004-10-04 09:47:16
	re: Part 1,Multiply the numbers	Tim Axoy	2003-06-01 11:06:46
	Factorial fun	Brian Smith	2003-04-30 07:35:15
	Part 1,Multiply the numbers	Tim Axoy	2003-03-24 09:31:04
	Interesting property	Dulanjana	2002-12-06 18:59:24
	re(3): I get the sequence, but not the first number	Dulanjana	2002-12-06 15:39:02
	Number Play	cges	2002-12-06 06:44:17
	re(2): I get the sequence, but not the first number	Cory Taylor	2002-12-06 05:10:29
	re: I get the sequence, but not the first number	Dulanjana	2002-12-05 15:13:18
	I get the sequence, but not the first number	pleasance	2002-12-05 02:10:25