I'm working my way through a probability textbook, and i have encountered the Gamma function through the Gamma distribution.   I understand that the Gamma function is an interpolating function that can give pretty accurate values of factorials across the entire Reals, in between the Natural numbers that factorials typically work for, but HOW was this function even conceived? I want to see the thought process behind this function. How did Euler decide that the Gamma function described factorial 'curve' one can draw between the discrete factorial function? He didn't just pull this function outta nowhere, there has to be a reasoning behind it, i take it?
In  is a proof of Stirling's formula.  I really like most of it, but at a crucial step he uses the integral identity  $$n! = \int_{0}^{\infty} t^n e^{-t}  dt$$  , coming from the Gamma function.  I have a mathematical confession to make: I have never "grokked" this identity.  Why should I expect the integral on the right to give me the number of elements in the symmetric group on $n$ letters?    (It's not that I don't know how to prove it.  It's quite fun to prove; my favorite proof observes that it is equivalent to the integral identity $\int_{0}^{\infty} e^{(x-1)t}  dt = \frac{1}{1 - x}$.  But if someone were to ask me, "Yes, but why, really?" I would have no idea what to say.)  So what are more intuitive ways of thinking about this identity?  Is there a probabilistic interpretation?  What kind of random variable has probability density function $\frac{t^n}{n!} e^{-t}$?  (What does this all have to do with Tate's thesis?)  As a rough measure of what I'm looking for, your answer should make it obvious that $t^n e^{-t}$ attains its maximum at $t = n$.  Edit:  The kind of explanation I'm looking for, as I described in the comments, is similar to  of the beta integral.
How to see if certain representation of $SU(2)$ is symmetric/antisymmetric/mixed? I am looking at the tensor product of $n$ spin halfs (fundamental of $SU(2)$): \begin{equation} \left(\frac{1}{2}\right)^n = \frac{1}{2} \times \frac{1}{2} \times ... \times \frac{1}{2} = \frac{n}{2} + ... \end{equation} For example, for $n = 3$ \begin{equation} \frac{1}{2} \times \frac{1}{2} \times \frac{1}{2} = \frac{1}{2} \times \left(1 + 0\right) = \left(\frac{3}{2}\right)_1 + \left(\frac{1}{2}\right)_1 + \left( \frac{1}{2} \right)_0 \end{equation} where lower indexes on the right hand side specify from which tensor product representation came from. My question is how do I read off if a certain term on the right is a symmetric, antisymmetric or a mixed symmetry representation of $SU(2)$? I came up with two ways of approaching the problem.  First is Young Tableaux. As far as I understand rows of Young Tableaux correspond to symmetric indexes while columns to antisymmetric ones. So, for example, a diagram with just one row (like one that corresponds to the highest spin $\frac{3}{2}$ from the example - three boxes in a row) describes a totally symmetric representation. A diagram that has one column (maximum 2 boxes since we are dealing with $SU(2)$) describes totally antisymmetric representation. Everything that has both rows and columns is a mixed symmetry representation. Following this logic it looks like only the highest representation in the product can be totally symmetric, singlet is antisymmetric and everything in between has mixed symmetry. So, for the example \begin{equation} \left(\frac{3}{2}\right)_1: \text{symmetric rep}\\ \left(\frac{1}{2}\right)_{0,1}: \text{mixed symmetry reps}\\ \end{equation} Is this is a correct logic?  Another way to think about this is the following. Let's build representation the way we do in QM starting from the highest one, when all the spins are up. Then all components of the highest multiplet can be generated by applying lowering operators to the highest state. So, all the relative signs in the expressions are &quot;+&quot; and thus the highest representation is always symmetric as 1. also suggests. Then all the other representations must be constructed by writing down expressions orthogonal to components of the highest multiplet, so they will necessary get some &quot;-&quot; signs and as a result must be either antisymmetric or have mixed symmetry, but can not be totally symmetric.   Is this correct logic? Is it true that only the highest representation in the product can be symmetric and all the others have mixed symmetry or antisymmetric? Assume $0 &lt; a_0 \leq a_1 \leq \cdots \leq a_n$, show that equation   $$ p_n(z) = a_0 z^n + a_1 z^{n-1} + \cdots + a_{n-1} z + a_n = 0 $$   does not have root in $|z| &lt; 1$. Here $z$ is complex.   I started by considering the case in which $n = 2$, and tried to use the triangle inequality, while no progress was made. Any hints will be appreciated. Field that is a subfield of own of its subfields Let $K$ and $L$ be fields. We have homomorphisms $f: K \to L$ and $g: L \to K$. Are $K$ and $L$ necessarily isomorphic? How do i test capacitors? I've just gotten through replacing capacitors on a trio of dead LCD screens (nothing's blown up yet, so far) - they either had one or two capacitors on their inverter circuit SLIGHTLY bloated, and not quite leaky. I ended up replacing all capacitors of the same brand/'colour', even the ones that looked fine, in case.  Now, checking a bad resistor is simple - i can use a standard multimeter to test it, and i tend to check my solders with the continuity testing option of the multimeter.  How would i test a capacitor ? Is there some standard, common way to test one? How can I undo "always allow" in keychain item I'm trying to identify a science fiction series on UK TV during the 70s, but I can only recall the following:   A party of adults and children. There was a woman with a telepathic bond to her cat: she could look into its eyes to see what it had seen. Time travel was involved. I think it may have been inadvertent or uncontrolled time travel. On one occasion the party encountered an Elizabethan seaman who demanded to know if Elizabeth was still queen. They party replied "err... yes" because they didn't want to have to explain time travel. How should I print types like off_t and size_t? How to link to apps on the app store I am creating a free version of my iPhone game. I want to have a button inside the free version that takes people to the paid version in the app store. If I use a standard link    the iPhone opens Safari first, and then the app store. I have used other apps that open the app store directly, so I know it is possible.  Any ideas? What is the URL Scheme for the app store? Z-axis issue with the floating review info panel, permits various elements to flow over it Evaluate the limit      $$ \lim_{n\rightarrow \infty}\left(\frac{n+1}{n}\right)^{n^2}\cdot \frac{1}{e^n} $$   My Attempt:  $$ \lim_{n\rightarrow \infty}\left(\frac{n+1}{n}\right)^{n^2}\cdot \frac{1}{e^n} = \lim_{n\rightarrow \infty}\left(1+\frac{1}{n}\right)^{n^2}\cdot \frac{1}{e^n} $$  How can I solve the problem from this point? Winter Bash 2014 closing remarks - ideas for next year we had a question like this, and  SE  members have supported one this year, and nobody seems to have made one yet.  Hence:  What does everybody want for next year's Winter Bash? It's okay to repost old ideas that have already come up if you feel they haven't had enough attention (but please don't go just copy/pasting every  !).  A few ideas I can think of off the top of my head:   Moar hats! There's been plenty of time to get all the hats this year; it would be great if next year there'd be more to do. Keep secret hats secret-er. This could be pretty hard to do, but possibly by deleting/locking "how do I get secret hats" posts?   One idea per answer, please! In Postgres txid_current() should return biginteger but instead an integer is returned In Postgres 11, according to documentation, txid_current() should return biginteger but I'm getting small integer that doesn't look like is extended by epoch counter. My txid looks like this: 1123  "The internal transaction ID type (xid) is 32 bits wide and wraps around every 4 billion transactions. However, these functions  export a 64-bit format that is extended with an “epoch” counter so it will not wrap around during the life of an installation."     Am I interpreting documentation incorrectly? I have a generic class in my project with derived classes.  public class GenericClass&lt;T&gt; : GenericInterface&lt;T&gt; { }  public class Test : GenericClass&lt;SomeType&gt; { }   Is there any way to find out if a Type object is derived from GenericClass?  t.IsSubclassOf(typeof(GenericClass&lt;&gt;))   does not work. What is this story about 20 y.o. inexperienced "kids" fighting against a stronger foe in space? YA book about a young powerful female caster attending a school that trains in magical arts and duels I read a young adult novel around the turn of the century. This story features a young female protagonist that is very naturally gifted in magic. She is attending a  to learn mastery and control over her gifts.  A lot of her school revolves around magic dueling. The participants are taught to extend their inner aura like a second magical skin, possibly referred to as creating a shield, or . The user can increase the strength of the shield by focusing harder on it, but doing so means you have less ability to be offensive. The amount of energy needed to create a shield was half the energy a foe would need to focus at you to break it.  Ex: Mage A and B are equally matched. Mage A focuses half his power into a shield. Mage B would then need to focus 100% of his power to break A’s shield.  Another aspect I remember is that when dueling, a school master would extend a personal shield on to one of the combatants as a sort of secondary shield that goes underneath the combatants. When one mage broke the others mages personal shield, the school masters shield protects the losers life from harm, and the breaker of the shield is declared the winner.  I distinctly remember one match in which the protagonist is having a duel with another strong student. She creates a wind storm around herself that picks up the sand from the arena floor and makes her impossible to see and thus makes it hard for her opponent to focus on her shield to break it. She then lashes out at her opponent with incredibly powerful strikes with the final strike being so hard it shatters the opponents shield and then breaks the school masters shield as well and stops just shy of killing her dueling partner.  Any assistance on this one? I think my daughter would love to read it. If $m,n\in N$ Prove that there is such a positive integer k, such that $(\sqrt{m}+\sqrt{m+1})^n=\sqrt{k}+\sqrt{k+1}$ If $m,n\in N$ Prove that there is such a positive integer k, such that $(\sqrt{m}+\sqrt{m+1})^n=\sqrt{k}+\sqrt{k+1}$ I attempted to solve this question using binomial coefficients, saying: $(\sqrt{m}+\sqrt{m+1})^n=\sqrt{k}+\sqrt{k+1}=\sum\limits_{a=0}^n {n\choose a}*\sqrt{m}^{n-a}*\sqrt{m+1}^a$ and from here I was thinking that I had to do something with $\sqrt{m}^{n-a}$ with $\sqrt{k}$ and do something else with $\sqrt{k+1}$ and $\sqrt{m+1}^a$. Unfortunately I couldn't think of what to do with this circumstance. I then thought of maybe taking $(\sqrt{k}+\sqrt{k+1})^2=(\sum\limits_{a=0}^n {n\choose a}*\sqrt{m}^{n-a}*\sqrt{m+1}^a)^2$, but this immediately over-complicated the question. Could you please explain to me how to solve this question and how to solve similar questions in the future? This question has troubled me for ages despite my several attempts of looking it up in dictionaries or usage books. Do we say, "Do you have any ideas" or "Do you have any idea"? I do see an example where "any" means "it doesn't matter who/which/what", therefore "You can borrow any book you like." Also, does it matter between using it in questions and negatives? I have the following code:  Using cmd As SqlCommand = Connection.CreateCommand     cmd.CommandText = "UPDATE someTable SET Value = @Value"     cmd.CommandText &amp;= " WHERE Id = @Id"     cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Id", 1234)     cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Value", "myValue")     cmd.ExecuteNonQuery End Using   I wonder if there is any way to get the final SQL statment as a String, which should look like this:  UPDATE someTable SET Value = "myValue" WHERE Id = 1234   If anyone wonders why I would do this:   for logging (failed) statements for having the possibility to copy &amp; paste it to the Enterprise Manager for testing purposes Find $x,y$ given $\gcd(x,y)$ and ${\rm lcm}(x,y)$ How do I root my Android device? This is a common question asked by those who want to root their phones. How exactly do I root my Android device? Are there risks involved?