[OT] Google Math Fun

[Jim Hurley]

Curses! And recurses!

I meant "recursive" not "iterative."

Jim

> Hi Scott,
> 
> Google math is great. It will even evaluate factorials up to about 170.  170! = 7.257416e+306
> 
> Most calculators show an overflow beyond 60!
> 
> But Wolfram alpha will evaluate 300! = 3.0605751221644063603537046129726862938858880417 × 10^614
> 
> And God knows how much further.
> 
> Live code doesn't have a factorial function.
> 
> I wrote one that works up to 170!  It uses the traditional iterative method below 60! and the Sterling approx beyond that.  Beyond 170! LC shows an  overflow:
> 
> 
> function fact n
>   if n < 60 then
>         return factorial (n)
>   else
>      put exp(1) into e
>      return   ((n/e)^n) * (sqrt(2*pi*n)) --This is the Sterling approx.
>   end if
> end fact
> 
> function Factorial n
>    if n = 1 then
>     return 1
>      else
>       return n * factorial(n-1)
>    end if 
> end factorial
> 
> 
> 
>> 
>> Message: 21
>> Date: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 23:47:19 -0700
>> From: Scott Rossi <scott at tactilemedia.com>
>> To: LiveCode Mail List <use-livecode at lists.runrev.com>
>> Subject: [OT] Google Math Fun
>> Message-ID: <CE025187.222BA%scott at tactilemedia.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="US-ASCII"
>> 
>> When working in LiveCode, I often use the message box to do quick
>> operations and avoid switching out to another application, say a math
>> problem for example.  Tonight I needed to do some quick operations while
>> searching the Web and I had just a feeling in my gut that Google had taken
>> care of this.  This might be old news to some, but sure enough, I typed
>> "1136 divided by 2" into the browser search field, and Google returned a
>> javascript calculator pre-filled with the answer.
>> 
>> Nice one, Google.
>> 
>> (I now expect the day will come when Google will return a page containing
>> a picture of a large camera lens and will speak to me in a synthesized
>> voice:  "I'm sorry, Scott. I'm afraid I can't do that.")
>> 
>> Regards,
>> 
>> Scott Rossi
>> Creative Director
>> Tactile Media, UX/UI Design
>> 
>