The pattern of numbers shown in the Pascal`s Triangle figure has been studied for over 2,000 years

by people all over the

world. This Triangle is math`s Paradigm of Nature. We want the book to be useful to everyone from high school students and
their teachers to graduate students and working mathematicians.This book contains materials obtained from authentic and
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 1

CHAPTER I
Pascal`s Triangle - History

1.1 The History of The Arithmetic Triangle in China

1.2 The History of The Arithmetic Triangle in India
1.3 The History of The Arithmetic Triangle in the Middle East
1.4 The History of the Arithmetc Triangle in Europe
1.5 Blaise Pascal
1.6 Treatise on the Arithmetical Triangle
1.7 Identity from The Treatise

Introduction

The Arithmetical Triangle or so called Pascal triangle was known in China as early as 1261.
In 1261 the triangle appears to a depth of six in Yang Hui and to a depth of eight in Chu Shih-
chieh hijiei in 1303. They used it as we do, as a means of generating the binomial coefficients.
There are some proofs that this number triangle was familiar to the Arab astronomer, poet and
mathematician Omar Khayyam as early as the XI century. Most probably the number triangle
came to Europe from China through Arabia.

The Chinese representation of the binomial coefficients, often equally called Pascal`s Triangle
being found in his work published for the first time after his death ( in 1665 ) and dealing with
figurate numbers, is found for the first time on the title page of the European Arithmetic written
by Appianus, in 1527.

Blaise Pascal was not the first man in Europe to study the binomial coefficients, and never
claimed to be such; indeed, both Blaise Pascal and his father Etienne had been in correspondence
with Father Marin Mersenne, who published a book with a table of binomial coefficients in 1636.
 2

Many authors discussed the ideas with respect to expansions of binomials, answers to
combinatorial problems and figurate numbers, numbers relating to figures such as triangles,
squares,tetrahedra and pyramids.
In 1654 Blaise Pascal entered into correspondence with Pierre de Fermat of Toulouse about some
problems in calculating the odds in games of chance, as a result of which he wrote the Traité du
triangle arithmétique, avec quelques autres petits traitez sur la mesme matiére, probably in august
of that year. Not published until 1665, this work, and the correspondence itself which was
published in 1679, is the basis of Pascal`s reputation in probability theory as the originator of
the concept of expectation and its use recursively to solve the `Problem of Points`, as well as
the justification for calling the arithmetical triangle `Pascal`s triangle`.
 3

1.1 The History of The Arithmetic Triangle in China

Three names from China figure prominently in the story of the discovery of the binomial
coefficients in that culture. The first is Chia Hsien. Little is known about Chia's life except that he
held a relatively low military office during the reign (1022/23 1063/64) of Emperor Renzong of
the Song dynasty. He was a pupil of mathematician and astronomer Chu Yan, who contributed
to the revision of the Chongtian calendar in 1023, and served in the Imperial Astronomical
Bureau in the mid-11th century. Chia's name was mainly quoted in connection with his method
of extracting roots (solutions) of polynomials of degree higher than three and with the related
Chia Hsien triangle, which contains the binomial coefficients for equations up to the sixth
degree. This diagram is similar to Blaise Pascal's triangle, which was discovered independently
later in the West.

Chia wrote two treatises, of which only parts of the first are extant, Huangdi jiuzhang suanfa
xicao
and Suanfa xiaoguji

Of the mathematical problems contained in the first book, about two-thirds are thought to have
been incorporated in Yang Hui's Xiangjie jiuzhang suanfa

in the Yongle dadian

from 1842. Yang Hui listed the coefficients of (a+b)1 through (a+b)6. Yang's Jiuzhang suan fa
zuan lei (c. a
compilation and reclassification, with further explanations, of the problems from the Han
dynasty classic and its commentaries, Jiuzhang suanshu (c. 100 BC AD 50; Nine Chapters on the
Mathematical Procedures) contains the oldest representation of what is known in the West as
Blaise Pascal's triangle . In the preface Yang asserts that he copied it from an older explication,
Huangdi jiuzhang suanfa xicao by Jia Xian.

Chu Shih-chieh (1303) continues the expansions out to (a+b)8 in an attractive chart preserved

to this day, though on this list , where the first is written incorrectly as 34 and the

second as 35. The Chinese obviously understood the main additive rule of ,

but there is no clear cut evidence they understood the main multiplicative rule of .
 4

Chu's fame rests primarily on two publications, Suanxue qimeng

Shih-so suan-shu
former is an introductory mathematics textbook, proceeding from elementary arithmetic to
algebraic calculations. Through its layout and progression it clearly testifies to the author's
didactic concern. Following the southern Chinese tradition of mathematics, this book contains
many rules and problems presented in the form of verses to facilitate their

northern Chinese technique of tian yuan

computation performed with counting rods to solve problems. This method, also contained in
books written by Li Ye (1192 1279), was developed primarily to calculate the dimensions of
simple geometric figures, given their volume or area and some supplementary data. Chu
demonstrated that the method can be applied to a very wide range of problems. As in the method
of the celestial unknown, Chu's procedure depends heavily on the use of counting rods to
represent polynomials and equations. His main improvement lay in the introduction of

diagram, known in the West as Blaise Pascal's triangle, which most likely inspired Chu's
discovery of an important combinatoric identity.
 5

1.2 The History of The Arithmetical Triangle in India

The idea of taking "six tastes one at a time, two at a time, three at a time, etc." was written down
correctly in India 300 years before the birth of Christ in a book called the Bhagabati Sutra, a text
from the Jainist religion; this gives the subcontinent of India the distinction of being the earliest
civilization to have an understanding of the binomial coefficients in their combinatorial form "n
choose k" in a text that survives to this day.
Prosody, the study of rhythm and meter in songs and poetry, was the interest of Pingala (circa
200 B.C.), who called his rule Meru Prastara; instead of tastes, he was now thinking about six
syllables in a poem, which could be any combination of long and short. While his original text
does not fully survive, surviving commentaries on his work show that he understood the additive
rule. Among the surviving commentaries on the Meru Prastara are the work of Varahamihara
(505 A.D.), which talks about the additive rule, and Bhattotpala (1068 A.D.) has a table which
correctly lists the number of ways to take two things at a time, three things at a time, four things
at a a time, etc. from sets as big as sixteen things.
Another Jain mathematician Mahavira (circa 850 A.D.) writing in Ganita Sara Sangraha
completely generalized the rule found in the Bhagabati Sutra, written over a millenium
previously.
The great Hindu mathematician Bhaskara (circa 1100 A.D.) repeats Mahavira's work in his
Lilavati, which is more accessible to Western readers, and includes the idea of multiplicative
expansion of a row of the triangle, an idea Edwards could not find in the Chinese texts which put
the numbers in their well-known triangular form.
Bhaskara's particular interest, like Pingala's, was prosody. In this context, Bhaskara uses the

following sequence of fractions: . The idea is this: there is only one way to have
six short syllables; from there, we multiply by 6 to get the number of ways to do five short and
one long, then multiply that result by 5/2 to get the number of ways to to do four short and two
long, and continuing down the line we get the sixth row 1, 6, 15, 20, 20, 15, 6, 1. Bhaskara also
understood the idea of the multinomial coefficient in reference to arranging digits and/or letters;
this was work original to him that did not appear in Mahavira.

The idea of expansion of a binomial was not well studied in India, though Brahmagupta
(628 A.D.) had correctly expanded (a+b)3, one level higher than is found in the surviving work of
the great Greek mathematician Euclid. While Brahmagupta's work is not the greatest
 6

achievement of Indian mathematics, there is evidence that it made its way to Baghdad two
centuries later, and may well be the seed from which the tree of knowledge in the Middle East
about the binomial coefficients first grew.

Jainist religion The Jains believe in the liberation of the soul by right faith, right knowledge and
right conduct. While their numbers are not as large as the Hindus or Buddhists, the religion
survives to this day and has adherents around the world.

Prosody The problem studied by Pingala is similar to the long and short clicks used in Morse
code; in music from India, the number of actual beats is counted, instead of thinking about the
number of beats of a certain length, as is used in Western musical notation such as 4/4 or 6/8.
For example, Indian musicians would categorize the first bar of the 4/4 rock song Louie, Louie as
a six beat pattern, short-short-short-long-short-long, where the beat in italics indicate a rest. This
is continued ad nauseum or until the band takes a break, whichever comes first.
 7

1.3 The History of The Arithmetic Triangle in the Middle East

While the interest in the binomial coefficients in India dealt with choosing and arranging things,
mathematicians in the Middle East were interested almost entirely in expansions of polynomials;
the work of the Indian Brahmagupta, which included the expansion of (a+b)3, was available to
the scholars of the Middle East, and their expansions on this problem may well have been
inspired by his work.

A.W.F. Edwards postulates that the work of Al-Karaji (circa 1000 A.D.) in expanding the
Binomial Triangle might have borrowed Brahmegupta's work, given that it was available and Al-
Karaji definitely had read other Hindu texts then available in Baghdad. There is some
disagreement whether he was born in Karaj in Persia, hence the name Al-Karaji, or in Karkh, a
suburb of Baghdad, which would have made him an Arab. The name Al-Karkhi is also used in
some older texts, though the modern consensus is that della Vida's scholarship in 1933 is
probably correct and he was from Karaj; there is no dispute that he worked in Baghdad, which
was the great cultural center of the Middle East even before the time of Mohammed.

Others in the Middle East who worked with the binomial coefficients include Al-Samawal,
a Jew born in Baghdad who died in 1180, the Persian Nasir Al-Din Al-Tusi, who published in
1265, and the Persian Al-Kashi, who died in 1429, whose work Key of Arithmetic has the triangle
up to the ninth level, the additive rule and the multiplicative rule. Unlike many of the others
listed here, Al-Kashi did not go to Baghdad, but instead worked in Samarkand, the major city in
the area now known as Uzbekistan.

There is also another famous Persian scientist who makes a claim to knowledge. Omar
Khayyam (circa 1100) wrote a letter claiming to have been able to expand binomials to sixth
power and higher, but the actual work does not survive; in the letter he mentions that he is aware
not only of work done in India, but of Euclid's Elements.
Khayyam was one of the great scientists of his day; among other works, he gave a very
good approximation for the exact length of a year, one of the most exact in the world when he
was alive. rom his father's trade. He

Samarkand (now in Uzbekistan), where he completed the algebra treatise, ʾ l- ʾ

ʾil al-jabr waʾl-
mathematical reputation principally rests. In this treatise he gave a systematic discussion of the
solution of cubic equations by means of intersecting conic sections. Perhaps it was in the context of
 8

this work that he discovered how to extend Abu al-

roots to the extraction of nth roots of numbers for arbitrary whole numbers n.

He is best known in the West for his collection of poems The Rubaiyat, which was translated into
English in 1859 by Edward Fitzgerald. The most famous two of these are:

The Moving Finger writes, and, having writ, A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread--and Thou
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Beside me singing in the Wilderness--
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it. Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!
 9

1.4 History of the Arithmetc Triangle in Europe

Blaise Pascal was not the first man in Europe to study the binomial coefficients, and never
claimed to be such; indeed, both Blaise Pascal and his father Etienne had been in correspondence
with Father Marin Mersenne, who published a book with a table of binomial coefficients in 1636.
Many authors discussed the ideas with respect to expansions of binomials, answers to
combinatorial problems and figurate numbers, numbers relating to figures such as triangles,
squares, tetrahedra and pyramids.

Here is a short list in chronolgical order of publishing.

Ancient Greek Era

Until recently, little had been known of the Greeks interest in combinatorics; it was known
that they studied square numbers and triangular numbers, the second column of the Triangle,

, so they knew that the sum of two consecutive triangular numbers forms a square.

Recently a lost manuscript of Archimedes was rediscovered in a palimpsest, a text written

over another older text. Archimedes' work was bleached out and the parchment was cut to make
paper for a prayerbook about 1000 years ago. Using modern techniques, the work Archimedes
did was restored, and it was shown he had correctly figured out the number of different ways a
geometric puzzle called the Stomachion could be reassembled into a square; while Archimedes
does not use the binomial coefficients, it does show an interest in counting previously unseen in
surving texts from the classical Greek period.

The First Millenium (from 0 to 1000 A.D.)

Circa 100 A.D.: Two authors, Theon of Smyrna and Nicomachus of Gerasa, saw that the sum
of triangles could be seen as a tetrahedron, so the tetrahedral numbers, the third column of the

Triangle, , were first seen in the West. To generalize this concept for figures, the
mathematicians of the day would have to think beyond three dimensions. It would be over a
millenium before another European would extend this work.

275: Porphyry correctly lists the number of pairs of five voices is not 5×4=20, but 5×4/2=10. His
 10

work is a commentary on Aristotle's Categories.

320: Pappus of Alexandra generalizes Porphyry's work.
Circa 510: Boethius, writing a commentary on Porphyry's work, repeats the generalization
found by Pappus.

10th Century A.D.: Sortes Apostolorum published, a book of fortune telling by dice rolls.
Similar publications, including 1484's Libro della Ventura are the impetus for Tartaglia solving
the general problem of how many different dice rolls there are given k dice, each with n sides.

The Second Millenium (from 1000 A.D. until Pascal)

1140: In Spain, Rabbi Ben Ezra figures out the seventh row of the Triangle, in connection with
the question of how to take the Sun and the six known planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars,
Jupiter and Saturn) in combinations of one at a time, two at a time, etc.
1202: Fibonacci (also known as Leonardo of Pisa) writes down the expansion of (a+b)3, which
was already well-known in India and the Middle East. Besides being know for the Fibonacci
numbers, he is also credited with being the first European mathematician to use the Hindu-
Arabic numerals we use today, which made the Roman numeral system obsolete.
Circa 1225: Jordanus of Nemore, a German mathematician, in his manuscript de Arithmetica

shows that he understands both , the second of which is

remarkable step forward for the mathematics of his day. Jordanus dies young, lost at sea on the
return trip from The Holy Land.
13th Century, exact date unknown: In a poem entitled de Vetula, it is shown that three six-
sided dice can come up in 56 different ways, if we count 6-6-5 to be the same as 6-5-6 and 5-6-6,
for example.
1321: Levi Ben Gerson, a Frenchman came up with the falling factorial formula for the binomial
coefficients, and presents the first known examples of an explicit mathematical induction proof.
Both Ben Gerson and Ben Ezra were interested in the Hebrew mystical tradition of the Cabala,
which has an interest in, among other things, seemingly magical relationships between numbers.
Circa 1407: an edition of Jordanus' de Arithmetica contains the following table.
 11

Note the somewhat strange obsolete versions of the numerals 4, 5, 6 and 7, while 0, 1,
2 and 3 are easily recognizable in their modern form.

1484: Lorenzo Spirto's Libro della Ventura (Book of Fortune) lists the 56 ways 3 six-sided dice
can be thrown in nearly exactly the same way described in the poem de Vetula from two
centuries before. This is the inspiration for Tartaglia to solve the general problem for k dice, each

with n sides in 1523, which is .

1523: Nicolo Tartaglia first publishes the generalization of the figurate numbers. Some 30 years
later, in his General Treatise, he publishes the Triangle in table form. Tartaglia is the first
mathematician to publish a general formula for solving cubic equations. His name in Italian
means "stammerer". This cruel nickname was given to him after severe facial wounds he suffered
at the age of twelve when attacked by a soldier invading his hometown of Brescia nearly killed
him; these wounds left him able to speak only with difficulty for the rest of his life.

1539: Gerolamo Cardano, the Italian algebraist, correctly determines that the number of ways to
take 2 or more things from a set of n things is 2n-n-1, which is the sum of the nth row of the
Triangle if we ignore the first two entries.

1544: The German mathematician Michael Stifel publishes the extended Figurate Triangle in the
figure shown below. Stifel gives credit to Cardano's work published five years earlier.
 12

To turn this into Pascal's Triangle, we would need to add a column of 1's at the beginning, and then mirror the
numbers listed on the left onto the right side, except for the rightmost entry in the even rows and the two rightmost
entries in the odd rows.
1545: Scheubelius, another German, publishes his version of the Triangle in connection with the
extraction of roots, the great unsolved problem of the age in its most general form.

1556: Tartaglia publishes his General Treatise, which includes the following tables of the
Triangle
 13

The first page of Tartaglia's General Treatise, with the Triangle written in rectangular form
 14

Also from Tartaglia, the Triangle in symmetric form, with the 1's removed from both left and right

1570: Cardano publishes his Opus Novum (New Work), which includes the following page.
 15

Cardano's 1570 work, which states the figurate numbers are the combinatorial numbers
 16

1591: François Viète gives names to the first few columns of the Triangle in Latin; "numeri
trianguli", "pyramidales", "triangulo-trianguli", "triangulo-pyramidales" These names are also
used in the next century by Pierre de Fermat, who was Pascal's main correspondent in solving the
Problem of Points, and William Oughtred, a British mathematician who influences many of his
countrymen who come after him.

1631: William Oughtred publishes his Clavis Mathematicae, which influences his student John
Wallis and is later owned in a 3rd edition printing by Isaac Newton; both Wallis and Newton are
instrumental in the work that connects the binomial coefficients to the new field of calculus later
in this century.

1633: The lifetime work of Henry Briggs entitled Trigonometria Britannica is published two
years after his death by his friend Henry Gellibrand; he has a chapter on the figurate numbers,
which he refers to as "the calcuator of many uses".

1636: Father Marin Mersenne publishes his Harmonicorum Libri XII; Mersenne in his life
meets with both Blaise Pascal and his father Etienne, and there is little doubt both of them read
the book and saw this table.
 17

While missing the first column of 1's, this table does correctly show that "36 choose 12", the number in the
lowest right hand position, is over 1.2 trillion, a remarkable feat of patience for a person calculating all
these numbers by hand.
 18

1.5 Blaise Pascal

Among the contemporaries of Descartes none displayed greater natural genius than Pascal, but
his mathematical reputation rests more on what he might have done than on what he actually
effected, as during a considerable part of his life he deemed it his duty to devote his whole time to
religious exercises.

Blaise Pascal was born at Clermont on June 19, 1623, and died at
Paris on Aug. 19, 1662. His father, a local judge at Clermont, and
himself of some scientific reputation, moved to Paris in 1631, partly
to prosecute his own scientific studies, partly to carry on the
education of his only son, who had already displayed exceptional
ability. Pascal was kept at home in order to ensure his not being
overworked, and with the same object it was directed that his
education should be at first confined to the study of languages, and
should not include any mathematics.

This naturally excited the boy's curiosity, and one day, being then twelve years old, he asked in
what geometry consisted. His tutor replied that it was the science of constructing exact figures
and of determining the proportions between their different parts. Pascal, stimulated no doubt by
the injunction against reading it, gave up his play-time to this new study, and in a few weeks had
discovered for himself many properties of figures, and in particular the proposition that the sum
of the angles of a triangle is equal to two right angles. I have read somewhere, but I cannot lay my
hand on the authority, that his proof merely consisted in turning the angular points of a
triangular piece of paper over so as to meet in the centre of the inscribed circle: a similar
demonstration can be got by turning the angular points over so as to meet at the foot of the
perpendicular drawn from the biggest angle to the opposite side. His father, struck by this display
of ability, gave him a copy of Euclid's Elements, a book which Pascal read with avidity and soon
mastered.
In 1653 he had to administer his father's estate. He now took up his old life again, and made
several experiments on the pressure exerted by gases and liquids; it was also about this period
that he invented the arithmetical triangle, and together with Fermat created the calculus of
probabilities. He was meditating marriage when an accident again turned the current of his
thoughts to a religious life. He was driving a four-in-hand on November 23, 1654, when the
horses ran away; the two leaders dashed over the parapet of the bridge at Neuilly, and Pascal was
 19

saved only by the traces breaking. Always somewhat of a mystic, he considered this a special
summons to abandon the world. He wrote an account of the accident on a small piece of
parchment, which for the rest of his life he wore next to his heart, to perpetually remind him of
his covenant; and shortly moved to Port Royal, where he continued to live until his death in 1662.
Constitutionally delicate, he had injured his health by his incessant study; from the age of
seventeen or eighteen he suffered from insomnia and acute dyspepsia, and at the time of his
death was physically worn out.

His famous Provincial Letters directed against the Jesuits, and his Pensées, were written towards
the close of his life, and are the first example of that finished form which is characteristic of the
best French literature. The only mathematical work that he produced after retiring to Port Royal
was the essay on the cycloid in 1658. He was suffering from sleeplessness and toothache when the
idea occurred to him, and to his surprise his teeth immediately ceased to ache. Regarding this as a
divine intimation to proceed with the problem, he worked incessantly for eight days at it, and
completed a tolerably full account of the geometry of the cycloid.

I now proceed to consider his mathematical works in rather greater detail.

His early essay on the geometry of conics, written in 1639, but not published till 1779, seems to
have been founded on the teaching of Desargues. Two of the results are important as well as
interesting. The first of these is the theorem known now as ``Pascal's Theorem,'' namely, that if a
hexagon be inscribed in a conic, the points of intersection of the opposite sides will lie in a
straight line. The second, which is really due to Desargues, is that if a quadrilateral be inscribed in
a conic, and a straight line be drawn cutting the sides taken in order in the points A, B, C, and D,
and the conic in P and Q, then
PA.PC : PB.PD = QA.QC : QB.QD.
Pascal employed his arithmetical triangle in 1654, but no account of his method was printed till
1665. The triangle is constructed as in the figure below, each horizontal line being formed form
the one above it by making every number in it equal to the sum of those above and to the left of it
in the row immediately above it; ex. gr. the fourth number in the fourth line, namely, 20, is equal
to 1 + 3 + 6 + 10.
The numbers in each line are what are now called figurate numbers. Those in the first line are
called numbers of the first order; those in the second line, natural numbers or numbers of the
second order; those in the third line, numbers of the third order, and so on. It is easily shewn that
the mth number in the nth row is (m+n-2)! / (m-1)!(n-1)!
 20

Pascal's arithmetical triangle, to any

required order, is got by drawing a
diagonal downwards from right to left
as in the figure. The numbers in any
diagonal give the coefficients of the
expansion of a binomial; for example,
the figures in the fifth diagonal,
namely 1, 4, 6, 4, 1, are the coefficients
of the expansion Pascal used
the triangle partly for this purpose,
and partly to find the numbers of
combinations of m things taken n at a
time, which he stated, correctly, to be
(n+1)(n+2)(n+3) ... m / (m-n)!

Perhaps as a mathematician Pascal is best known in connection with his correspondence with
Fermat in 1654 in which he laid down the principles of the theory of probabilities. This
correspondence arose from a problem proposed by a gamester, the Chevalier de Méré, to Pascal,
who communicated it to Fermat. The problem was this. Two players of equal skill want to leave
the table before finishing their game. Their scores and the number of points which constitute the
game being given, it is desired to find in what proportion they should divide the stakes. Pascal
and Fermat agreed on the answer, but gave different proofs. The following is a translation of
Pascal's solution. That of Fermat is given later.
The following is my method for determining the share of each player when, for example, two
players play a game of three points and each player has staked 32 pistoles.

Suppose that the first player has gained two points, and the second player one point; they have now
to play for a point on this condition, that, if the first player gain, he takes all the money which is at
stake, namely, 64 pistoles; while, if the second player gain, each player has two points, so that there
are on terms of equality, and, if they leave off playing, each ought to take 32 pistoles. Thus if the
first player gain, then 64 pistoles belong to him, and if he lose, then 32 pistoles belong to him. If
therefore the players do not wish to play this game but to separate without playing it, the first player
 21

would say to the second, ``I am certain of 32 pistoles even if I lose this game, and as for the other 32
pistoles perhaps I will have them and perhaps you will have them; the chances are equal. Let us then
divide these 32 pistoles equally, and give me also the 32 pistoles of which I am certain.'' Thus the
first player will have 48 pistoles and the second 16 pistoles.

Next, suppose that the first player has gained two points and the second player none, and that they
are about to play for a point; the condition then is that, if the first player gain this point, he secures
the game and takes the 64 pistoles, and, if the second player gain this point, then the players will be
in the situation already examined, in which the first player is entitled to 48 pistoles and the second
to 16 pistoles. Thus if they do not wish to play, the first player would say to the second, ``If I gain
the point I gain 64 pistoles; if I lose it, I am entitled to 48 pistoles. Give me then the 48 pistoles of
which I am certain, and divide the other 16 equally, since our chances of gaining the point are
equal.'' Thus the first player will have 56 pistoles and the second player 8 pistoles.

Finally, suppose that the first player has gained one point and the second player none. If they
proceed to play for a point, the condition is that, if the first player gain it, the players will be in the
situation first examined, in which the first player is entitled to 56 pistoles; if the first player lose the
point, each player has then a point, and each is entitled to 32 pistoles. Thus, if they do not wish to
play, the first player would say to the second, ``Give me the 32 pistoles of which I am certain, and
divide the remainder of the 56 pistoles equally, that is divide 24 pistoles equally.'' Thus the first
player will have the sum of 32 and 12 pistoles, that is, 44 pistoles, and consequently the second will
have 20 pistoles.

Pascal proceeds next to consider the similar

problems when the game is won by whoever first
obtains m + n points, and one player has m while
the other has n points. The answer is obtained
using the arithmetical triangle. The general
solution (in which the skill of the players is
unequal) is given in many modern text-books on
algebra, and agrees with Pascal's result, though
of course the notation of the latter is different
and less convenient.
Pascal made an illegitimate use of the new theory in the seventh chapter of his Pensées. In effect,
he puts his argument that, as the value of eternal happiness must be infinite, then, even if the
probability of a religious life ensuring eternal happiness be very small, still the expectation (which
is measured by the product of the two) must be of sufficient magnitude to make it worth while to
be religious. The argument, if worth anything, would apply equally to any religion which
 22

promised eternal happiness to those who accepted its doctrines. If any conclusion may be drawn
from the statement, it is the undersirability of applying mathematics to questions of morality of
which some of the data are necessarily outside the range of an exact science. It is only fair to add
that no one had more contempt than Pascal for those who changes their opinions according to
the prospect of material benefit, and this isolated passage is at variance with the spirit of his
writings.

The last mathematical work of Pascal was that on the cycloid in 1658. The
cycloid is the curve traced out by a point on the circumference of a circular
hoop which rolls along a straight line. Galileo, in 1630, had called attention
to this curve, the shape of which is particularly graceful, and had suggested
that the arches of bridges should be built in this form. Four years later, in
1634, Roberval found the area of the cycloid; Descartes thought little of this
solution and defied him to find its tangents, the same challenge being also
sent to Fermat who at once solved the problem.

Several questions connected with the curve, and with the surface and volume generated by its
revolution about its axis, base, or the tangent at its vertex, were then proposed by various
mathematicians. These and some analogous question, as well as the positions of the centres of the
mass of the solids formed, were solved by Pascal in 1658, and the results were issued as a
challenge to the world, Wallis succeeded in solving all the questions except those connected with
the centre of mass. Pascal's own solutions were effected by the method of indivisibles, and are
similar to those which a modern mathematician would give by the aid of the integral calculus. He
obtained by summation what are equivalent to the integrals of , , and , one
limit being either 0 or . He also investigated the geometry of the Archimedean spiral. These
researches, according to D'Alembert, form a connecting link between the geometry of
Archimedes and the infinitesimal calculus of Newton.
 23

1.6 Treatise on the Arithmetical Triangle

In 1654 Blaise Pascal wrote the Treatise on the Arithmetical Triangle . Not published until 1665,
this work, had great role in development of the

probability theory
theory of convergent and divergent series
derivative and integral calculus

Pascal opens the first part by defining an unbounded rectangular array like a matrix in which the
number in each cell is equal to that in the preceding cell in the same column plus that in the
preceding cell in the same row. He considers the special case in which the cells of the first row
and column each contain 1.
 24

The rest of Part I is devoted to the demonstration of nineteen corollaries flowing from this
definition, and concludes with a problem. The corollaries include all the common relations
among the binomial coefficients (as the entries of the triangle are now universally called), none of
which was new. Pascal proves the twelfth corollary.
The second part Uses of the Arithmetical Triangle consists of four sections:
Use (1) ... in the theory of figurate numbers
(2) ... in the theory of combinations
(3) ... in dividing the stakes in games of chance
(4) ... in finding the powers of binomial expressions

In Part II Pascal turns to the applications of these numbers. The numbers thus defined have three
different interpretations, each of great antiquity (which he does not, however, mention). The
 25

successive rows of the triangle define the figurate numbers which have their roots in Pythagorean
arithmetic. Pascal treats these in section (1).
The second interpretation is as binomial numbers, the coefficients of a binomial expansion,
which are arrayed in the successive diagonals, their identity with the figurate numbers having
been recognized in Persia and China in the eleventh century and in Europe in the sixteenth.
Pascal treats the binomial interpretation in section (4). Pascal treats the binomial interpretation
in section (4).
The third interpretation is as a combinatorial number, for the number of combinations of n
different things taken r at a time.
Pascal deals with this interpretation in section (2).
In section (3) Pascal breaks new ground, and this section, taken together with his correspondence
with Fermat, is the basis of his reputation as the father of probability theory. In it he amplifies
and formalises the solution of the Problem of Points which he had discussed with Fermat, calling
it La r gle des partis. They had both arrived at the combinatorial solution involving the counting
of all the ways in which the game could have been completed. Pascal, however, does not refer to
this method explicitly in the Treatise , preferring to prove the same result by mathematical
induction based on his method of expectations. It is a brilliant display using the results recorded
earlier in the Treatise , and is prized as the birth of modern probability theory.
 26

1.7 Pascal`s identity from The Treatise :

From his first drawing of The Arithmetical Triangle, Pascal clearly saw the binomial coefficients
lying on the upward diagonals of the figurate matrix. His identities are presented here in order;
the original 19 are reduced to 12 because some are the symmetric notational versions of the same
concept; a last identity from the second part of The Treatise is also presented.

st
Identity:

This, of course, is the key additive identity when we think of the number in our modern standard
form.

nd
Identity:

rd
Identity:

matrix. In the rectangle that is above and to the left of any entry in the figurate matrix, and add
up all those numbers, then add 1, and you get the original entry back.
 27

th
Identity:

When we look at the array as a triangle, this is very obvious and can be proven in many ways;
j=columnj, which will

give us the symmetry along the upwards diagonals.

th
Identity:

and

By using the additive rule to make row n from the entries in row n-1, and noticing that every
entry gets used twice, adding it to make both the entry below and to the left as well as below and

the (sum of row0) = 1 = 20, the second part of the identity follows immediately.

th
Identity:

Here we are looking at a partial sum across a row, then using the additive rule backwards to get
the entries in the row above that make up the parts that sum to each of the summands of the left
side of the equation.
 28

th
Identity:

starting with 1 then multiplying by the fractions

th
Identity:

and

These multiplicative identities allow us to build a column of the Triangle using just the
previous entries of that column or building down a mirror image of a regular column. This
identity is also known as absorption; the other identites found in Pascal's work that make the top
ten are the 1st, the 4th, the 7th and the 2nd twice, both for the parallel and upper summation forms.
(The four that round out the top ten that are not found in Pascal's work are the binomial
theorem, trinomial revision, upper negation and Vandermonde's convolution.)

th
Identity:
 29

Both sides of this equation are equal to , as we see in the first part of the 2nd Identity
and the first part of the 8th Identity.

th
Identity:

Both sides are again equal to .

th
Identity:

number in the sum; they will add up to consecutive entries in the row below, and we will use the
7th Identity to multiply by a fraction to set them equal; the only difference between these two is
the fraction, where we multiply by the reciprocal of the fraction to go from one identity to the
other.

th
Identity:

Using the additive property backwards from to get to the (2n-2)nd row, we get
 30

Since the term is surrounded by two terms equal to each other, we then use the 7th
Identity to write one of these terms as a multiple of the middle term, and with a little algebra, we
are done.

In the second part of the Treatise, Pascal concerns himself with the Problem of the Game of
Points, and the identities he has come up with in Part 1 are used to solve this probability
problem, with very few new insights into the Triangle added. There is one nice identity is in this
section,

(from Part 2 of the Treatise)

If we write , then also factor in 2n copies of 2 into the denominator, the fraction

becomes ; we can cancel out the even terms from the top
with one of the sets of even terms in parentheses from the bottom, and we get the fractional form
Pascal saw.