Stirling's Formula

1 de 4

http://www.sosmath.com/calculus/sequence/stirling/stirli...

Stirling's Formula
An important formula in applied mathematics as well as in probability is the Stirling's
formula known as

where
is used to indicate that the ratio of the two sides goes to 1 as n goes to
In other words, we have

or

Proof of the Stirling's Formula

First take the log of n! to get

Since the log function is increasing on the interval

for

. Add the above inequalities, with

, we get

, we get

04/10/11 16:05

Stirling's Formula

2 de 4

http://www.sosmath.com/calculus/sequence/stirling/stirli...

Though the rst integral is improper, it is easy to show that in fact it is convergent.
Using the antiderivative of
(being
), we get

Next, set

We have

Easy algebraic manipulation gives

Using the Taylor expansion

for -1 < t < 1, we get

This implies

04/10/11 16:05

Stirling's Formula

3 de 4

http://www.sosmath.com/calculus/sequence/stirling/stirli...

We recognize a geometric series. Therefore we have

From this we get

1.
the sequence

is decreasing;

2.
the sequence

This will imply that

is increasing.

converges to a number C with

and that C > d1 - 1/12 = 1 - 1/12 = 11/12. Taking the exponential of d n, we get

The nal step in the proof if to show that

. This will be done via Wallis

formula (and Wallis integrals). Indeed, recall the limit

Rewriting this formula, we get

Playing with the numbers, we get

04/10/11 16:05

Stirling's Formula

4 de 4

http://www.sosmath.com/calculus/sequence/stirling/stirli...

Using the above formula

we get

Easy algebra gives

since we are dealing with constants, we get in fact

. This completes the

proof of the Stirling's formula.

[Trigonometry] [Calculus]
[Geometry] [Algebra] [Dierential Equations]
[Complex Variables] [Matrix Algebra]
S.O.S MATHematics home page
Do you need more help? Please post your question on our S.O.S. Mathematics
CyberBoard.
Mohamed A. Khamsi
Tue Dec 3 17:39:00 MST 1996
Copyright 1999- MathMedics, LLC. All rights reserved.
Contact us
Math Medics, LLC. - P.O. Box 12395 - El Paso TX 79913 - USA
1633 users online during the last hour

04/10/11 16:05