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Binomial Expansion Reminder For IB Mathematics

Binomial expansion, binomial coefficients, rows of Pascal's triangle, factorial, binomial coefficient as number of choices, some properties, binomial coefficients add up to a power of 2

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Максим Бекетов
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140 views2 pages

Binomial Expansion Reminder For IB Mathematics

Binomial expansion, binomial coefficients, rows of Pascal's triangle, factorial, binomial coefficient as number of choices, some properties, binomial coefficients add up to a power of 2

Uploaded by

Максим Бекетов
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Reminder

Binomial expansion is the expression of the form

𝑛 𝑛 𝑛 𝑛
(𝑎 + 𝑏)𝑛 = ( ) 𝑎0 𝑏𝑛 + ( ) 𝑎1 𝑏𝑛−1 + ( ) 𝑎2 𝑏𝑛−2 + ⋯ + ( ) 𝑎𝑛 𝑏0
0 1 2 𝑛

where (𝑎 + 𝑏) has two terms, that’s why it’s called binomial, and the powers of 𝑎 and 𝑏 in each
term of the expansion add up to 𝒏. The coefficients (𝑛𝑘), where 𝑘 = 0,1, … , 𝑛 are called
binomial coefficients. In Russian texts they are normally denoted 𝐶𝑛𝑘 rather than (𝑛𝑘).
Some well-remembered examples of this expansion are

(𝑎 + 𝑏)2 = 𝑎2 + 2𝑎𝑏 + 𝑏2 , (𝑎 + 𝑏)3 = 𝑎3 + 3𝑎2 𝑏 + 3𝑎𝑏2 + 𝑏3

If written in sigma notation, binomial expansion reads

𝑛
𝑛
(𝑎 + 𝑏) = ∑ ( ) 𝑎𝑘 𝑏𝑛−𝑘
𝑛
𝑘
𝑘=0

(notice that 𝑘 + (𝑛 − 𝑘) = 𝑛, how it should be). If the coefficients are written in a table with 𝑛
being the row number and 𝑘 being the column number, one has

0 1 2 … 𝑘
0 1
1 1 1
2 1 2 1
…
𝑛 𝑛 𝑛 𝑛 … 𝑛
( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
0 1 2 𝑘

where the red arrows show that the number in (𝑛, 𝑘)-th position is a sum of numbers
in (𝑛 − 1, 𝑘)-th and (𝑛 − 1, 𝑘 − 1)-th positions,

𝑛 𝑛−1 𝑛−1
( )=( )+( )
𝑘 𝑘 𝑘−1

(and the empty cells are considered to have zeros inside). This construction in the table is called
Pascal’s triangle.

Without writing down the Pascal’s triangle, the binomial coefficients can be found using an
explicit formula

𝑛 𝑛!
( )=
𝑘 𝑘! (𝑛 − 𝑘)!

Where 𝑛! = 1 ∙ 2 ∙ 3 ∙ … ∙ (𝑛 − 1) ⋅ 𝑛 (reads “n factorial” or “factorial of n”) – product of all


natural numbers up to 𝑛. So are 𝑘! = 1 ∙ 2 … ∙ (𝑘 − 1) ⋅ 𝑘 and (𝑛 − 𝑘)! = 1 ⋅ 2 ⋅ … ⋅ (𝑛 − 𝑘)
Since 𝑛! = (𝑛 − 𝑘)! ⋅ (𝑛 − 𝑘 + 1) ⋅ … ⋅ (𝑛 − 1) ⋅ 𝑛, this expression is the same as

𝑛 𝑛(𝑛 − 1)(𝑛 − 2) … (𝑛 − 𝑘 + 1)
( )=
𝑘 𝑘!

Which reveals the combinatorial meaning of the binomial coefficient: when expanding a
bracket of form (𝑎 + 𝑏)𝑛 into powers of 𝑎𝑘 𝑏𝑛−𝑘 , to pick 𝑎 k times from a product of n
brackets, one has 𝑛 choices for the first bracket, (𝑛 − 1) choice for the 2nd bracket, and so on
up to (𝑛 − 𝑘 + 1) choices for the 𝑘-th bracket. These choices are now divided by 𝑘! – the
number of permutations of k objects, since we do not care about the order in which one picks
the brackets.

That’s why (𝑛𝑘) reads “𝑘 choices out of 𝑛”.

It is very useful to remember that

𝑛 𝑛 𝑛(𝑛 − 1)
( ) = 𝑛, ( )=
1 2 2

There are several good properties of binomials that we didn’t mention yet. First of all, Pascal’s
triangle is symmetric – reads the same from left to right and from right to left. This gives

𝑛 𝑛
( )=( )
𝑘 𝑛−𝑘

And if one substitutes 𝑎 = 𝑏 = 1 to (𝑎 + 𝑏)𝑛 , one gets

𝑛 𝑛 𝑛 𝑛 𝑛
( )+ ( )+ ( ) +⋯+ ( ) + ( ) = 2𝑛
0 1 2 𝑛−1 𝑛

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