PLEASE NOTE THAT it only works for NUMBERS UP TO 21. It's not my fault, Scratch simply CAN'T SUPPORT numbers that big (you can check other factorial calculators and see that it doesn't work there either). ok so i'm not really active anymore but honestly, I want to be I like making math related projects because math is kind of my thing, but the thing is I'm probably much younger than you'd think I am so while i do know basic trigonometry, for example, I have like no experience in using it in projects and stuff. And the only reason I know it is because I have really strict parents who make me take a math class like a few grades ahead of my actual grade level. I also take this competitive math class, where I learned almost everything I know now about combinatorics/counting, including (not sure how to say it) choices? like x choose y (x ≥ y) where you have x items and need to choose y random of them. so I wanted to make a choose calculator and then immediately realized that scratch doesn't have a factorial function. I looked up factorial calculator and all of them happened to have really complicated code with lists and stuff (I hate using lists) so I just decided I wasn't going to make one. Then one day, while I was trying to fall asleep, I thought of this much more simple code for it and then tried it and it worked! so here's a factorial calculator (choose calculator is next!) What is a factorial? Put simply, factorials (written as "!") are when you multiply a number by all numbers before it down to 1. So, n! = n(n-1)(n-2)(n-3)...(2)(1) where n is a natural number. 0! = 1 for reasons I do not feel like explaining (look it up!). 3! = 3•2•1 = 6 4! = 4•3•2•1 = 24 The project will tell you the others How do I use factorials? When I first learned about them, I thought they were just this cool function that isn't used anywhere. But from my competitive math class, I've learned that there are many uses for them in combinatorics (sounds more professional than "counting", so I'll be calling it that instead). One main example is, say you have a class of 20 first graders. They need to line up to go on a field trip. How many ways are there to line them up? (assuming no students are perfect clones of each other) So you can assign all students a letter (a, b, c, d, ...). Let's place student a in the line first. There are 20 possible spots they could be put in, as they could be first, second, third, last, or anywhere else in the line. Then, we'll take student b. This time, there are only 19 spots where we could put them (because one of them is occupied by student a). This means that for every 20 places student a could be in, there are 19 places remaining for student b. Then, we multiply 20•19 for the places they could be put in, in total. We'll continue this pattern and find out that we have 20•19•18•17•16•...•3•2•1 combinations, which is, conveniently, equal to 20!, or 2432902008176640000, as I have learned from this project. Of course, there are many other uses of factorials, but the scratch description can't handle that much information, so that's all I'm writing. Please let me know if you have any questions! Thanks for reading through my description, I doubt anyone actually read the whole thing but that's okay because it's actually surprisingly satisfying to talk about math to no one in general. have a great day :)
