Solved cryptogram
The factorial can be stretched to fractions, and the value it gives one half involves pi.
Mathematics Facts, sourced to NIST Digital Library of Mathematical Functions.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 72 letters over 18 different ones, graded medium.
Or go to the puzzle’s own page first.
What it means
Factorials are defined by multiplying whole numbers, so asking for the factorial of a half should be meaningless. The gamma function extends the definition to a smooth curve through the whole number values, and it is the only sensible way to do so. Feed it a half and out comes the square root of pi. The function turns up constantly in probability and in physics, and it is the reason pi appears in the bell curve.
The claim comes from NIST Digital Library of Mathematical Functions.
- SourceNIST Digital Library of Mathematical Functions
- CollectionMathematics Facts
- Difficultymedium
- Length72 letters, 18 of them different
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