"Jerry W. Lewis" wrote in message ...

Huh? 364! = 6.87784347275582E775 which cannot be represented in double
precision. But you can get its base 10 logarithm as

=GAMMALN(364+1)/LN(10)

Jerry

I wrote:

The factorial of 364 - AS EVERYBODY KNOWS - is:

68778434727558170665560119859758980014152110328427
61579965094573671535928279708882100278906575412101
19895131900300885716731727975982739174066996381113
80472283834806453514358733364634223094358532372731
30157400036944390560551807672851497408504437122220
63339347215710551931977898157831445366638128499001
07187614208971784984648790424495130430227400674872
32548096023952876678545319718750098925530231415881
33466056154901044661283183534535046028934954645191
46982514199769387253600408194477090596739724944349
28259379407490602564339394828766015776585992771688
09125842563048132741261544896935060354832360324970
23805268456191795728613542506025326335769192545591
12463771028421986413805768882733973504000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000 exactly.

When I constructed my high-precision maths, I used
two bytes for the "powers-of-two", and not one.

Such a specialised maths will indeed resolve the
factorials to quite high values.

My own system gave a dynamic range of ten to the
power of 9863 down to ten-to-the -9862.

That is the behaviour of a two-byte "exponent".

A double-precision mantissa has no useful effect.

Charles Douglas Wehner

I agree with your exact value (verification courtesy of Maple 7). My
comment was in response to a claim (which you omitted) that 364! could
be computed to full precision using Excel's Analysis ToolPak -- I think
we agree that it cannot.

Jerry

Charles Douglas Wehner wrote:

"Jerry W. Lewis" wrote in message ...

Huh? 364! = 6.87784347275582E775 which cannot be represented in double
precision. But you can get its base 10 logarithm as

=GAMMALN(364+1)/LN(10)

Jerry


I wrote:

The factorial of 364 - AS EVERYBODY KNOWS - is:

68778434727558170665560119859758980014152110328427
61579965094573671535928279708882100278906575412101
19895131900300885716731727975982739174066996381113
80472283834806453514358733364634223094358532372731
30157400036944390560551807672851497408504437122220
63339347215710551931977898157831445366638128499001
07187614208971784984648790424495130430227400674872
32548096023952876678545319718750098925530231415881
33466056154901044661283183534535046028934954645191
46982514199769387253600408194477090596739724944349
28259379407490602564339394828766015776585992771688
09125842563048132741261544896935060354832360324970
23805268456191795728613542506025326335769192545591
12463771028421986413805768882733973504000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000 exactly.

When I constructed my high-precision maths, I used
two bytes for the "powers-of-two", and not one.

Such a specialised maths will indeed resolve the
factorials to quite high values.

My own system gave a dynamic range of ten to the
power of 9863 down to ten-to-the -9862.

That is the behaviour of a two-byte "exponent".

A double-precision mantissa has no useful effect.

Charles Douglas Wehner

"Jerry W. Lewis" wrote in message ...
I agree with your exact value (verification courtesy of Maple 7). My
comment was in response to a claim (which you omitted) that 364! could
be computed to full precision using Excel's Analysis ToolPak -- I think
we agree that it cannot.

Jerry

AGREED!

The highest-precision laboratory maths that I ever wrote gave 65
decimal places.

I do not know of any standard maths that gives 776 figures.

I created that long number with a string-manipulation program
published earlier in this thread
http://groups.google.de/groups?hl=de...le.com&rnum=24

Remove the line with b$ - it was included in error.

Charles Douglas Wehner

what I am attempting to do is write a procedure for a certain range
of
"large" numbers in my example I would multiply 364 by 363 and store
the
results then multiply the stored results by 362 and store the results
then multiply the stored results by 361 etc.

Someone who's been following this string asked me how long xlPrecision
would take to calculate 364!. I thought some others might be
interested, so here's my reply:

---------------------------------------------------
On a worksheet, on my creaky old Athlon 800 (no money to upgrade..),
it took about 4 seconds to calculating 364! down a column.

In Excel VBA it took about 3 seconds:

========================================
Dim xlp As xlPrecision.cls_xlPrecision
Dim strRet As String
Dim i As Integer
Dim iStart As Double, iEnd As Double

Set xlp = CreateObject("xlPrecision.cls_xlPrecision")
strRet = 1

iStart = Time
For i = 1 To 364
strRet = xlp.xlpMULTIPLY(strRet, i)
Next i
iEnd = Time
Debug.Print Format(iEnd - iStart, "ss")
Workbooks(1).Worksheets(1).Cells(1).Value = strRet
---------------------------------------------------

I checked the answer against Charles Douglas Wehner's answer posted
2003-07-15 10:27:00 PST, and they are the same.

With xlPrecision's 32,767 significant digits, the largest factorial it
can calculate is 10,958!.

I guess I should add a xlpFACTORIAL function to xlPrecision. I've been
working on adding xlpROOT and xlpPOWER.


Take care,

Greg Lovern
http://PrecisionCalc.com
Get Your Numbers Right
================================================== =====

Hello. I probably did not say that correctly. Excel's ATP functions cannot
calculate at that precision. What I meant to say is that when one writes
their own vba Factorial function, you can use the functions in the ATP to
help your program if desired. The only reason I mentioned it is that
Charles has a very nice and interesting web page on Euler's equation, as
well as a discussion on Sin's & Cos's. After reading his excellent web
page, I got the impression that his final factorial code was written in the
time domain. I just pointed out that his excellent Factorial program using
Sin & Cos could be continued if he wanted using Excel's ATP.

With xlPrecision's 32,767 significant digits, the largest factorial it can
calculate is 10,958!.

I might be wrong, but 10,958! has 39,511 digits.

Digits[10958!]
39511

If you are limited to 2^15, or 32,768, then I believe the size is 9,274!

Digits[9274!]
32768

I know the following is not interesting, and this is an old thread. The
frequency domain is not all that much faster when calculating 364! because
the ratios of n^2 / (n*Log(2,n) is not that great. (That's log(n), base
2). However, when the numbers are large, like 9,274! with 32,767 digits, I
think it is about 200 times faster to do it in the frequency domain than the
time domain. This is an old thread so I'll stop. However, you are correct,
Excel's ATP can not do it directly.

--
Dana DeLouis
Using Windows XP & Office XP
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =


"Greg Lovern" wrote in message
om...
what I am attempting to do is write a procedure for a certain range
of
"large" numbers in my example I would multiply 364 by 363 and store
the
results then multiply the stored results by 362 and store the results
then multiply the stored results by 361 etc.

Someone who's been following this string asked me how long xlPrecision
would take to calculate 364!. I thought some others might be
interested, so here's my reply:

---------------------------------------------------
On a worksheet, on my creaky old Athlon 800 (no money to upgrade..),
it took about 4 seconds to calculating 364! down a column.

In Excel VBA it took about 3 seconds:

========================================
Dim xlp As xlPrecision.cls_xlPrecision
Dim strRet As String
Dim i As Integer
Dim iStart As Double, iEnd As Double

Set xlp = CreateObject("xlPrecision.cls_xlPrecision")
strRet = 1

iStart = Time
For i = 1 To 364
strRet = xlp.xlpMULTIPLY(strRet, i)
Next i
iEnd = Time
Debug.Print Format(iEnd - iStart, "ss")
Workbooks(1).Worksheets(1).Cells(1).Value = strRet
---------------------------------------------------

I checked the answer against Charles Douglas Wehner's answer posted
2003-07-15 10:27:00 PST, and they are the same.

With xlPrecision's 32,767 significant digits, the largest factorial it
can calculate is 10,958!.

I guess I should add a xlpFACTORIAL function to xlPrecision. I've been
working on adding xlpROOT and xlpPOWER.


Take care,

Greg Lovern
http://PrecisionCalc.com
Get Your Numbers Right
================================================== =====

"Dana DeLouis" wrote in message ...
Hello. I probably did not say that correctly. Excel's ATP functions cannot
calculate at that precision. What I meant to say is that when one writes
their own vba Factorial function, you can use the functions in the ATP to
help your program if desired. The only reason I mentioned it is that
Charles has a very nice and interesting web page on Euler's equation, as
well as a discussion on Sin's & Cos's.

All good modern mathematics grows out of the established Art. However,
there is a process of RATIONALISING IN THE MIND - of creating simple
MIND IMAGES - before one has enough clarity of understanding with
which to attempt the new.

Such "tricks" as my "FOUR-BOX ALGORITHM" and a visualisation of the
"EULER SPIRAL" make things clear. However, to those who have not seen
the page, references to a "spiral in complex space" may seem like
mysticism.


..., I got the impression that his final factorial code was written in the
time domain.

No. What I did at that point was to emphasise that there is a FLAW in
complex arithmetic. It often GOES WRONG when "amateurs" apply it in a
mechanical fashion without using common sense.

Electronic engineers - working with REPETITIVE CYCLIC functions in the
TIME DOMAIN can usually get away with using complex maths. This is
because sinusoidal oscillators produce waves where one is very much
like the other.

Having shown that the user of complex maths is restricted to cyclic
functions, I returned to studies of the Gamma function (or what I call
fRactorials - FRACTIONAL factorials). I was now no longer dealing with
the time domain.


I just pointed out that his excellent Factorial program using
Sin & Cos could be continued if he wanted using Excel's ATP.


The RECIPROCAL of the Gamma (my Eucalculus curve) seems to spiral in
complex space.

One would apply Sin & Cos IF IT DID.

However, I found out that the spiral is LEFT-HANDED whilst also being
RIGHT-HANDED.

Such an AMBIDEXTROUS spiral is NONSENSE. There is no way of turning
left whilst symmetrically turning right.

Therefore there is no Sin or Cos in the Gamma function.

But more than this - Nature has shown that the Gamma function is
INCOMPATIBLE with complex maths. ONE OR OTHER of these is an ARTEFACT
OF MAN. Perhaps BOTH.


With xlPrecision's 32,767 significant digits, the largest factorial it can
calculate is 10,958!.

I might be wrong, but 10,958! has 39,511 digits.

Digits[10958!]
39511

If you are limited to 2^15, or 32,768, then I believe the size is 9,274!

Digits[9274!]
32768


I had built my own laboratory-standard maths, but no longer have it. I
had to flee from Britain at the time the Iraq war was brewing.

Without notes, I can only remember that my 2-byte exponent gave 10 to
the 9863 down to 10 to the -9862.

Divide by 256 for 1-byte: 10 to the 38.5

So one-byte-exponent maths is very poor on factorials. Two bytes does
indeed go to about 1500! - but I do not know the EXACT limit.
Certainly it is better than 34! which gives 2.9523279 times ten to the
38.

Four bytes, in my estimation is OVERKILL. Even three bytes would be a
waste, because very few people want to go above 1500! Those who do
would have to buy a special math system.

The coefficients of my f(r)actorial program are of the form
A + B(X) +C(X-squared)... where A, B, C &c are EMPIRICAL.

Due to the "transfinite" convergence, there seems to be no rational
connexion between A, B, C &c.

I was using my own huge maths - when I had it - in roughly the
following way:

Consider the Arc tangent giving coefficients:
1.000000000001
-0.333333333354
0.200000000176
-0.142857141234
0.111111196341 &c.

These could be CORRECT, or they could be the equivalent of
1/1
-1/3
1/5
-1/7
1/9 &c.

in which case, the
.............1
............54
...........176
..........1234
.........96341 &c.

is what I call the "Chebyshev WEDGE", because the error in the
highest-order coefficient tapers down almost to nothing at the
zero-order coefficient.

My use of HUGE MATHS was therefore to try to spot rational
(Pythagorean) relationships in the coefficients - or in a GENERATOR
FUNCTION for those coefficients. Or in the Generator-generator.

The bigger the maths, and the more coefficients used, the more likely
it is that a sequence 0.3333333 really is one THIRD, and not some
coincidence.

For example, Euler's little Gamma is 0.577215664
Pi/2e however, is 0.577863674

Three-figure maths cannot tell them apart.

Looking for natural laws, one needs these laboratory standard systems
that only the specialist ever uses.

It is nice to see this address turning up in this thread:

Greg Lovern
http://PrecisionCalc.com
Get Your Numbers Right

He won't put Gill Bates (or "what's-his-face") out of business, but
will certainly find a tiny niche market of people who want to do
unique things.

Charles Douglas Wehner

"Dana DeLouis" wrote in message ...


With xlPrecision's 32,767 significant digits, the largest factorial it can
calculate is 10,958!.

"Greg Lovern" wrote in message
om...
what I am attempting to do is write a procedure for a certain range
of
"large" numbers in my example I would multiply 364 by 363 and store
the
results then multiply the stored results by 362 and store the results
then multiply the stored results by 361 etc.


Greg Lovern
http://PrecisionCalc.com
Get Your Numbers Right
================================================== =====

I found a page with the first 1000 factorials ready-computed:
http://www.newdream.net/~sage/old/numbers/fact.htm

In computers, we often use look-up tables to speed things up.

It's a poor substitute for a real large mathematical system, though.

Charles Douglas Wehner