Algebra II : Multiplying and Dividing Factorials

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for Algebra II

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Example Questions

Example Question #11 : Factorials

Simplify the following expression:

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

n! indicates a factorial, which means the products of numbers from 1 to n. 

Example Question #12 : Factorials

Divide:  

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Write out the terms for the factorial.

Cancel out the common numbers in the numerator and denominator.

The answer is .

Example Question #13 : Factorials

Multiply:  

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To evaluate the product of these factorials, we will need to expand the factorials.

Multiply all the values.

The answer is: 

Example Question #14 : Factorials

Divide:  

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Expand the factorials in the numerator and denominator.

The terms 1, 2, 3, and 4 can be eliminated from the numerator and denominator.  The simplification becomes:

Example Question #15 : Factorials

Solve:  

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Evaluate the factorials first.

Substitute the values back into the expression.

Simplify the numerator.

Example Question #16 : Factorials

Solve the factorial:  

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Evaluate each factorial inside the parentheses.

Zero factorial is equal to .  Simplify by order of operations.

The answer is .

Example Question #17 : Factorials

Simplify the following factorial:

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Simplify the following factorial:

To solve this, we need to understand factorials. Factorials are denoted by a number followed by the ! sign. What a factorial is, is a given number multiplied by each positive integer leading up to the given number. Stated differently...

So what we have above is really:

Now, because numbers 1 through 14 are in the numerator and the denominator, they will cancel and we will be left with:

 

Example Question #18 : Factorials

Find the value of 

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

If you were to write out the factorial problem above it would look like: 

The only numbers that do not cancel out in the equation are the  in the denominator. Therefore the answer is .

Example Question #21 : Factorials

Simplify the following:

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To simplify the expression involving factorials, we must remember what a factorial is:

For our factorial expression, we can write out some of the terms of the numerator's factorial and we will be able to simplify from there:

As you can see, n! remains on top and bottom after writing out the first three terms of the numerator's factorial. There is no need to expand any further once we have the same factorial on top and bottom. They cancel, and we get our final answer. 

 

Example Question #22 : Factorials

Simplify (leave as a product of binomials):

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To simplify the expression, knowing that a factorial is, for example

will make it far easier.

Keeping this in mind, we can rewrite the given expression as

which simplifies to

after canceling like terms.

(One does not need to write out all terms of a factorial, rather as many in front that will leave something that cancels with another factorial are the most we usually need!)

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