Eli5 why we cant have negative factorials?

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I looked it up on google but my extent of math goes to algebra 2, but it immediately went into wacky stuff like “the gamma function”, simply put, what is the gamma function and why is it stopping stuff like -9! From being -362880

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Anonymous 0 Comments

The gamma function is really just an extension of the factorial to non whole numbers. It’s used in probability quite a bit.

The way it is defined, the gamma function just doesn’t allow for whole negative numbers but you can have negative non whole numbers. The way you defined it would violate one of the properties of factorials: (n-1)! = n!/n. Even if you defined -1 factorial (where the problems begin) to be something else (say 1) it wouldn’t equal a whole number. It would be a fraction.

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