Dear mathy people

[invertedreptile]

why the fuck does 0!=1? that makes absolutely no sense.

Comments

[greyling]

It's a hack that pissed me off, too - but it makes more mathematical definitions consistent, so whatever.

[tanjent]

Alternatively, the factorial function is intimately related to the (continuous) gamma function by the relation "n! = gamma(n+1)", and gamma is continuous at and equals 1 for n=0.

-tanjent

[cupacoffey]

Other commenters already covered everything I would say, but I feel compelled as a "mathy person" to leave a comment anyway.