Sequences and Series – Proving the Product Formula for First n Odd Numbers

inductionsequences-and-series

I have this formula which seems to work for the product of the first n odd numbers (I have tested it for all numbers from $1$ to $100$):

$$\prod_{i = 1}^{n} (2i – 1) = \frac{(2n)!}{2^{n} n!}$$

How can I prove that it holds (or find a counter-example)?

Best Answer

The idea is to "complete the factorials":

$$ 1\cdot 3 \cdot 5 \cdots (2n-1) = \frac{ 1 \cdot 2 \cdot 3 \cdot 4 \cdots (2n-1)\cdot (2n) }{2\cdot 4 \cdot 6 \cdots (2n)} $$

Now take out the factor of $2$ from each term in the denominator:

$$ = \frac{ (2n)! }{2^n \left( 1\cdot 2 \cdot 3 \cdots n \right)} = \frac{(2n)!}{2^n n!}$$

A mathematician may object that there is a small gray area about what exactly happens between those ellipses, so for a completely rigorous proof one would take my post and incorporate it into a proof by induction.