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using factorial in probability question
10-02-2017, 11:45 AM
Post: #17
RE: using factorial in probability question
(10-02-2017 05:48 AM)Joe Horn Wrote:  As explained above, you can't use 365! in Home AT ALL, because it overflows. When Home overflows, it returns the "overflow" value of 9.99999999999E499. That's why 365!/364! returns 365 in CAS but 1 in Home (because 9.9999999999E499/9.9999999999E499 = 1). That's not a bug; it's behaving precisely according to design.

In brief, you can't rely on factorials in Home for any input > 253.119055437 because they ALL return the same overflow value of 9.99999999999E499, just as do 4444^4444 and 7777777^7777777 and 1E456^2 and so on.

I agree that the calculator should give an error message on overflow. Maybe this could be a flag in setup. Either Notify on overflow or Don't notify on overflow.

Tom L
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RE: using factorial in probability question - toml_12953 - 10-02-2017 11:45 AM



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