Why zero factorial is one

Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Why does 0! Asked 10 years, 8 months ago. Active 3 years, 8 months ago. Viewed 23k times. Ski Mask 1, 1 1 gold badge 8 8 silver badges 24 24 bronze badges. Brandon Frohbieter Brandon Frohbieter 1 1 gold badge 2 2 silver badges 5 5 bronze badges. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. There are plenty of resources that already answer this question. Eric Naslund Eric Naslund However, I'm still curious why there is 1 way to permute 0 things, instead of 0 ways.

But if you say there are 0 ways to do nothing, then you are implying that it is impossible to do nothing, which is of course not the case. This is how I look at it. Well, one. No matter how we arrange these elements, we end up with the same combination. There are other reasons why the definition of 0! The overall idea in mathematics is that when new ideas and definitions are constructed, they remain consistent with other mathematics, and this is exactly what we see in the definition of zero factorial is equal to one.

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Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Share Flipboard Email. Courtney Taylor. Professor of Mathematics. Courtney K. Taylor, Ph. Updated February 04, Featured Video. Cite this Article Format. Taylor, Courtney. Math Glossary: Mathematics Terms and Definitions. Calculating the Mean Absolute Deviation. Understanding the Factorial! The Difference Between Combinations and Permutations.