Here's what we're looking for: [URL]http://mathworld.wolfram.com/RisingFactorial.html[/URL]. The "rising factorial" a.k.a. the "Pochhammer symbol". There is an analogous notation for the "falling factorial" as well (as opposed to the n! that we all know and love).

We could write [TEX]$\frac{64!}{32!}=33^{<64>}$[/TEX], using the rising factorial. Wonder why Alpha isn't smart enough to use *that* notation, considering that there is a Pochhammer[x, n] command in Mathematica!

(Side note: This is an example of where mathematics and its terminology reminds me of the study of medicine. Doesn't the "Pochhammer symbol" sound like some scary medical term a doctor would throw around? I can just imagine the advertisement: "Are your factorials frequently incomplete? Do you suffer from frequent factorial dysfunction? Ask your mathematician today whether the Pochhammer symbol is right for you. Side effects of the Pochhammer symbol can include increased CPU temperature and calculator overflow.")

[QUOTE=NBtarheel_33;319915](Side note: This is an example of where mathematics and its terminology reminds me of the study of medicine. Doesn't the "Pochhammer symbol" sound like some scary medical term a doctor would throw around? I can just imagine the advertisement: "Are your factorials frequently incomplete? Do you suffer from frequent factorial dysfunction? Ask your mathematician today whether the Pochhammer symbol is right for you. Side effects of the Pochhammer symbol can include increased CPU temperature and calculator overflow.")[/QUOTE]Oh yeah, the NA public TV advertising. I remember the first time I saw one of these obnoxious advertisements and thought what a messed up system the NA medical people are involved in.

I was kind of expecting to see some leeches advertised at some point also. And was half disappointed not to see any such advertisements. That would have been hilarious.