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I still need help
Posted:
Dec 20, 2002 6:59 PM
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In Alexander's reply to my comment about needing help understanding who the
coefficients sum to zero, he wrote:
P(-1) = +-((positive coefficients) + (absolute values of negative
coefficients))
In Algebra, the symbols I use (e.g., n-1, n-2) are representations of only
positive values. Again, if I say 3!, I can represent this as n(n-1)(n-2)
and each of these terms, evaluated, is a positive term. This is within the
classical and traditional understanding of factorials. I wasn't aware, as
Alexander notes, that we can have a factorial of a negative value and this
is where I was supposing that my knowledge and experience of number theory
is short. If we can have negative factorials, can we also have fractional
ones? What field of math am I trolling in? thanks, Alexander, but is there
more or will it take me a while longer to "get it?" ... mark
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