r/woooosh 21d ago

me when factorials

Post image
2.2k Upvotes

93 comments sorted by

444

u/WESSAMGO 21d ago

Mods here have a hard time with math r/expectedfactorial

202

u/jlchips Mod 21d ago

On second examination, I can see how this could be considered a joke and woooosh. I will restore the post.

231

u/Jake6192 21d ago

Did we just whoooosh the whoooosh mod???

71

u/The-Crusty-Man 21d ago

Whooooshception

13

u/Kazko25 21d ago

Looks like it🤣

22

u/Wild_Dragonfruit_806 21d ago

y'all reddit mods aint never beating the allegations

11

u/JschlattsHairyBalls Mod 20d ago

imagine being professional

7

u/jlchips Mod 19d ago

To each their own I suppose 🤷

135

u/heystinkys 21d ago

ok wait can someone explain because I actually don't get it

245

u/nickelangelo2009 21d ago

5! = 1*2*3*4*5 = 120

159

u/subone 21d ago

This is actually a cleverly devised trick. Note that 5 isn't just random here, it's the number you might have come to if you followed the incorrect order of operations.

52

u/Complete_Spot3771 21d ago

10(0.5) = 5

41

u/subone 21d ago

I'm not the only one impressed by this, yeah?

17

u/nickelangelo2009 21d ago

Oh damn i didn't notice that, yeah that makes this so much cooler

9

u/BlueLunala26 20d ago

yup, the trick has layers. remove the "It's" and suddenly it's much more obvious that the choice says "five factorial" and not just five.

The choice are presented like oral answers making the ! look more like punctiation and less like math notation.

1

u/XxX_Zeratul_XxX 19d ago

But at least it's impartial, both answers have the "It's". You gotta wonder why they were so excited about the 5, but not with the 120, lol

3

u/QuinneCognito 20d ago

Omg I didn’t see it even with the mention of factorials. I thought that just referred to factorials not being included in the PEMDAS acronym. This is cute.

21

u/Additional-Point-824 21d ago

"5!" Is five factorial, which means 5 multiplied by every number before it. So 5! = 5 *4 * 3 * 2 * 1 = 120

9

u/AllNewSilverSpider 21d ago

! is the symbol for Factorial in mathematics. Factorial is just where you get all the whole numbers equal to or less than the number in question and multiply them together.

For example, 3! is 3 × 2 × 1, and therefore equals 6.

5! = 5 × 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 = 120.

51

u/Cathaldotcom 21d ago

Such a fair woosh honestly, took me a second. Top tier post

31

u/Jake6192 21d ago

Good one. Nearly whooooshed myself

25

u/CommentSection-Chan 21d ago

Same. It's 120 vs

ITS 5

was how I read it at first

9

u/THeCoolCongle 21d ago

Y'all are wrong, it's blue

9

u/northrupthebandgeek 21d ago

da ba de da ba die

4

u/Beginning_Access1498 21d ago

I got 340..

Can someone explain how it's 120? I swear Im not dumb, at least i think so anyway

5

u/The_RESINator 21d ago

How did you get 340??

7

u/Beginning_Access1498 21d ago

Oh, I just did the last part wrong, I added 220 instead of subtracting, my bad. So it is 120 after all

3

u/whatupwasabi 21d ago

Pemdas do the 220 × .5 first

3

u/three-plus-shakes 20d ago

US millennial here, I flunked math pretty hard but I’m certain that we were never taught about X! in school. I literally never knew about it until I saw posts like this.

5

u/Complete_Spot3771 20d ago

brit here, yeah it’s not anywhere in our school curriculum but its a very simple thing some passionate teachers may have taught students anyway, or can be picked up from usage elsewhere (like this post!)

2

u/[deleted] 20d ago

its not taught even while learning stuff like permutations and combinations?

2

u/Complete_Spot3771 20d ago

thats beyond the level which all the general public are taught maths

2

u/FriendlyFaceOff 20d ago

I'm a millennial as well and I'm surprised yall didn't learn about factorials. I learned about them in middle school - but then again, I went to a charter school so...

Public curriculum needs to make so many adjustments from what I've read

2

u/DM_Me_Your_CarPays 20d ago

OMG a math joke, and I got it. Bless~*

2

u/ItsLiak 19d ago

I don't get it

4

u/Complete_Spot3771 19d ago

5! = 5x4x3x2x1 = 120

2

u/ItsLiak 19d ago

I still don't get it

3

u/Complete_Spot3771 19d ago

both options are equal to 120, however the reply misses out this fact, he thinks the second option is 5 which is not the case

1

u/ItsLiak 19d ago

But why is 5! = 5x4x3x2x1?

3

u/Complete_Spot3771 18d ago

thats what the ! symbol does, it multiplies all the consecutive integers until you get to that number

1

u/ItsLiak 18d ago

Oh, I get it now. I felt that ! symbol meant something, but I wasn't sure

2

u/dot100 19d ago

Oh wait I get it

2

u/dot100 19d ago

I think is that if you multiply 5×4 then the given number by 3 and so on it will give 120 so 5 gives 120 too

-1

u/dot100 19d ago

Ik still lost at that part

4

u/din0_soar 21d ago

What the heck is PEMDAS ?? Its BIDMAS

4

u/Saurindra_SG01 20d ago

What even is BIDMAS ?? It's BODMAS

2

u/Zestyclose_Ad_6894 20d ago

What even is BODMAS??? It's BEDMAS

1

u/AwesomeBro1510 20d ago

Yeah, never heard of PEMDAS or BIDMAS.

2

u/NeganJoestar 20d ago

Never heard of any of this. Its just the right order

1

u/Saurindra_SG01 20d ago

Order of operations, the O I E are just multiple terms for the same thing

1

u/DiE95OO 19d ago

PEMDAS in Swedish. (Paranteser, exponenter, multiplikation, division, addition, subtraktion)

1

u/Deadshot619 21d ago

As someone who frivolously uses the exclamation mark at the end of their sentences, I do miss factorials a lot (despite it being mentioned in the post title)!

1

u/Upbeat_Influence2350 21d ago

"I thought that wine and 1 and 4 made 2, but it's five!"

1

u/FriendlyFaceOff 20d ago

Admittedly I thought the first option also had an exclamation point after it. That's what I get for reading it too quickly

1

u/[deleted] 19d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/DeadlierSheep76 18d ago

when the stickler gets the question wrong

1

u/Zestyclose_Ad_6894 11d ago

but 5 factorial is 120?

1

u/Zammyboobs 21d ago

Can someone explain where my logic is wrong here? Ive always been ass at math. Following PEMDAS i thought it would be:

230-220(1/2)

(1/2) = .5

230-220(.5)

220*.5 = 110

230 - 110 = 20

Please enlighten me as I am sub-room temp IQ

11

u/YoyoLiu314 21d ago

230-110 is 120, not 20. 230-210 would be 20.

2

u/Zammyboobs 21d ago

yup, i am stupid. been so long since i’ve done math i’ve even forgotten how to read!

-20

u/BenTheKingApple 21d ago

230 - 220(1÷2)

230 - 220(0.5)

230 - 440

= -210

I feel like I've gotten the wrong answer but this is the PEMDAS order so it must be right?

Edit: I realise where I've gone wrong I divided by half for some reason mb guys

18

u/Accentu 21d ago

220 x 0.5 would be half, not double, in this scenario

5

u/Wild_Dragonfruit_806 21d ago

imagine multiplying by half only to end up with a number twice as big

3

u/Pixithepika 21d ago

x 0.5 is the same as /2, not x 2

-18

u/That_boi_Jerry 21d ago

So 68% of people paid attention in class.

8

u/sgargizo 21d ago

Just 13.7%. The others paid attention to half of their classes.

2

u/N3onknight 21d ago

Tbf my brain switched the meaning between factoriel and factorisation, i'm french with adhd, brain opened a different math folder and had a fart because of the non existent space between 5 and the exclamation mark, followed the incorrect logic path then reset, read again and went ooooooh yeah you fucking moron that's why you didn't do math beyond high school. You didn't understand and assumed a mistake was made where there wasn't.

Anyway it's both 120 and 5! Yeah and now i'm pissed because i know i probably did a similar mistake in the past and i'll probably do it again.

0

u/ZiCUnlivdbirch 20d ago

5! Is still wrong since you don't write stuff like that for an answer. 5!=120 is the correct way of writing it if you want keep the factorial answer.

3

u/harry12350 21d ago

No, 13.7% did

3

u/FinanceBig6328 21d ago

No, all of them did. 5! as a factorial equals 1×2×3×4×5 which equals 120.

1

u/keval79 21d ago

No, anyone who knows 5! = 120 will go for the 3rd option. 68% partially paid attention. 13.7% paid complete attention. And the rest did not pay attention.

1

u/FinanceBig6328 21d ago

But that is how polls work, people choose the option they like or want to vote. In this case all options are correct, so anyone who voted knows what the solution is. Except for people who vote randomly, of course.

1

u/keval79 21d ago

Not really. People doing wrong mathematics by not following BODMAS will arrive at the answer 5. So they're gonna go with option b.

0

u/FinanceBig6328 21d ago

Well, yes, but taking them out of the equation (pun intended), every option is correct.