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Pascals Triangle

Pascal's triangle is named after the French mathematician Blaise Pascal, though it was discovered independently by Persian and Chinese mathematicians as early as the 11th century. The Chinese mathematician Yang Hui constructed the triangle as far as the 6th row in the 13th century. Over subsequent centuries, the concept spread from China and Arabia to Europe, where many mathematicians explored its properties and applications. Pascal published a book in 1655 that developed many of the triangle's properties and applications, and the triangular arrangement of numbers is now known as Pascal's triangle.

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11 views

Pascals Triangle

Pascal's triangle is named after the French mathematician Blaise Pascal, though it was discovered independently by Persian and Chinese mathematicians as early as the 11th century. The Chinese mathematician Yang Hui constructed the triangle as far as the 6th row in the 13th century. Over subsequent centuries, the concept spread from China and Arabia to Europe, where many mathematicians explored its properties and applications. Pascal published a book in 1655 that developed many of the triangle's properties and applications, and the triangular arrangement of numbers is now known as Pascal's triangle.

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jenjshannon
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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Fun Math Project #4: Pascals Triangle

Pascals triangle is named after a seventeenth century French mathematician, Blaise Pascal (1623 1662), although other mathematicians knew about this triangle centuries before Pascals birth. This triangle had been independently discovered during the eleventh century by both the Persians and the Chinese. One of the earliest displays of Pascals triangle dates back to 1261 to the work of Yang Hui. Yang Hui, a Chinese mathematician, managed to construct the triangle as far as the 6th row. The Chinese call the numbers Yanghuis Triangle because Chu Shih-Chieh in 1303 gave credit to Yanghui, who worked about 40 years before him. There is evidence that this number triangle was also familiar to the Arab astronomer, poet, and mathematician, Omar Khayyam, as early as the eleventh century. This number triangle concept moved from China and Arabia to Europe, where many mathematicians also contributed to the development of this triangle. In some Italian works, the array is called Tartaglias Triangle, named for the Italian algebraist Tartaglia who published the numbers in 1556, over a century before Pascal. In 1655, Blaise Pascal published a book where he developed many of the triangles properties and applications. The triangular arrangement of numbers shown below is known as Pascals triangle. 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 3 3 1 1 4 6 4 1 ? ? ? ? ? ? Question 1: Find the six numbers designated by the question marks. Answer:

One of the uses of Pascals triangle is to obtain the coefficients of the terms involved in a binomial expansion: 1 1 1 1 1 ? ? 4 ? 3 6 ? 2 3 4 ? 1 1 1 1 ? Row 1: ( a + b) 0 = 1 Row 2: ( a + b)1 = 1a + 1b Row 3: ( a + b) 2 = 1a 2 + 2ab + 1b 2 Row 4: ( a + b)3 = 1a 3 + 3a 2b + 3ab 2 + 1b 3 Row 5: ( a + b) 4 = 1a 4 + 4a 3b + 6a 2b 2 + 4ab 3 + 1b 4

Question 2: What patterns do you observe in Pascals triangle compared to patterns you see in the expansion of a binomial? Answer:

Question 3: What is the expansion of ( a + b)5 involving Row 6? Answer:

Pascals triangle can be used in problem solving too. Consider the following problem: Question 4: How many different downward paths are there from A to B in the grid below? The path must be downward and travel on the lines. A

B Answer:

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