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Subject: why does 0! equal 1? hi- this is Diane- I am a college student, but my statistics teacher asked us this question and I remember it being raised while I was in high school too... Every math book always claims that 1!=1 and 0!=1 are givens, and that we should just memorize it. i understand the 1! part, but where is the basis for claiming that 0!=1???? thanks so much. Hi Diane,One way to see this is to think about n! as the ANSWER to a question: How many ways can you make an ordered list of n things (all different). If THAT is you basic idea (and the formula nx(n-1)x .... 2x1 is the solution). THEN consider the question: How many ways can you make a list of 0 things : 1 This point of view would be called a 'combinatorial interpretation'. It also fits with various other formulae which use n! for counting etc. E.g. nCk (n choose k) is n!/k! (n-k)!. How about n C n? It should be 1 (only one way to choose n things form n things - chosse them all). It should also be n!/0! n!. Those two answers match PROVIDED 0!=1. Similarly n C 0 should be 1. (One way to choose nothing - just walk away). So we want 1 = n!/n! 0! Again that means we want 0!=1. It works so well, keeps so many formulae still working in the extreme cases that people accept it as the consistent value. Walter
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