We posted a math fact on Instagram and Facebook on February 22, 2021. The math fact is listed below.
There are exactly 8! (eight factorial) minutes in four weeks. This is calculated as follows 4x7x24x60=8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1
How is it possible exactly 8! (eight factorial) minutes in four weeks?
We need to know a few facts to understand how this is possible.
First, we need to know what a factorial is.
What is a factorial?
A factorial (represented by n!) of a positive integer n, is the product of all positive integers equal to or less than n. It is defined by:
, where n represents a positive integer.
Example 1
5! (5 factorial)
5! =5*(5-1) ….x1
5! =5x4x3x2x1
5! =120
Second, we need to know many minutes are in four weeks.
Let us list the time conversion factors:
1h=60 min - one hour equals sixty minutes
1day=24h -one day equals twenty-four hours
1week=7days -one week equals seven days
Step 1
We need to convert to 4 weeks into days.
The conversion equation is
.
Four weeks is the given, and the number of days is the desired.
Step 2
We need to convert days to hours.
We will use 28 days from Step 1 (given).
The number of hours is desired
Step 3
We need to convert hours to minutes.
We will use 672 hours from Step 2 (given).
The number of minutes is desired.
4 weeks equals 40,320 minutes.
Third, we need to know how many factorials equal 40,320 minutes.
Remember, a factorial is the product of a positive integer equal to or less than n.
Let us start with one.
1! =1
2! =2x1=2
3! =3x2x1=6
4! =4x3x2x1=24
5! =5x4x3x2x1=120
6! =6x5x4x3x2x1=720
7! =7x6x5x4x3x2x1=5,040
8! =8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1=40,320 8! equals 40,320. There are 40,320 minutes in 4 weeks, which means 4 weeks equals 8!
This math fact is courtesy of transum.org