22 Oct
2005
22 Oct
'05
7:58 p.m.
--- "R. William Gosper" <rwg@osots.com> wrote:
At 20:50:54 Mon, Dec 8 1997, I gave an improved Sirling's approximation
- z - y z 2 1 z! ~ S(z) := sqrt(2 pi) e (z + y) sqrt(z + y + -) ... It might be possible to combine this S(z) approximation with fancier divisibility arguments (and a slightly different, possibly variable y) to get a competitive (exact) algorithm for large integer z.
But surely not for arbitrarily large integers. If you could do this, then you could test for primality using Wilson's theorem. Gene __________________________________ Yahoo! FareChase: Search multiple travel sites in one click. http://farechase.yahoo.com