Re: Inconsistent behavior?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg87281] Re: Inconsistent behavior?
- From: "David Park" <djmpark at comcast.net>
- Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2008 06:44:31 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <ft7ggo$bs3$1@smc.vnet.net>
Angela,
Binomial is one of the functions that Mathematica knows quite a bit about.
The Function help page talks about evaluation to exact results with integers
and 'certain other special arguments'. Maybe Mathematica doesn't expand
Binomial[n, m_Integer] when m >5 because users might prefer to keep the
shorter unevaluated form in symbolic expressions. In any case, you can
expand by using FunctionExpand.
Binomial[n, 20] // FunctionExpand
((-19 + n) (-18 + n) (-17 + n) (-16 + n) (-15 + n) (-14 + n) (-13 +
n) (-12 + n) (-11 + n) (-10 + n) (-9 + n) (-8 + n) (-7 + n) (-6 +
n) (-5 + n) (-4 + n) (-3 + n) (-2 + n) (-1 +
n) n)/2432902008176640000
But it is a little inconsistent to have an arbitrary break off point and not
mention it. It might be more consistent to evaluate none of these cases or
only m = 0 and m = 1.
--
David Park
djmpark at comcast.net
http://home.comcast.net/~djmpark/
"angela" <mpopyft at lycos.com> wrote in message
news:ft7ggo$bs3$1 at smc.vnet.net...
> Binomial[n,4] yields
> 1/24 (-3+n) (-2+n) (-1+n) n
>
> Binomial[n,5] yields
> 1/120 (-4+n) (-3+n) (-2+n) (-1+n) n
>
> Binomial[n,6] yields
> Binomial[n,6]
>
> Binomial[n,7] yields
> Binomial[n,7]
>
> Is some setting doing this.
>
> Thanks;
> Angela
>