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Cape Pure Math Unit 2 The Binomial Theorem

The document discusses Pascal's triangle and the binomial theorem. Pascal's triangle shows the coefficients of the terms in the binomial expansion of (a + b)n. It can be used to expand binomial expressions to any power. The binomial theorem gives a formula to expand (a + b)n in terms of an, bn, and terms with coefficients found in Pascal's triangle. It can expand binomial expressions to fractional and negative powers as well by substituting x for b and using limits. Examples are given to demonstrate expanding binomial expressions up to certain powers of x using Pascal's triangle and the binomial theorem.

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Hugh Ingram
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113 views4 pages

Cape Pure Math Unit 2 The Binomial Theorem

The document discusses Pascal's triangle and the binomial theorem. Pascal's triangle shows the coefficients of the terms in the binomial expansion of (a + b)n. It can be used to expand binomial expressions to any power. The binomial theorem gives a formula to expand (a + b)n in terms of an, bn, and terms with coefficients found in Pascal's triangle. It can expand binomial expressions to fractional and negative powers as well by substituting x for b and using limits. Examples are given to demonstrate expanding binomial expressions up to certain powers of x using Pascal's triangle and the binomial theorem.

Uploaded by

Hugh Ingram
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 DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Binomial Series

Pascal’s Triangle

You should know that (a + b)² = a² + 2ab + b² and you should be able to work out
that (a + b)³ = a³ + 3a²b + 3b²a + b³ .
It should also be obvious to you that (a + b)¹ = a + b .

so (a + b)¹  =        a + b
(a + b)² =       a² + 2ab + b²
(a + b)³ =  a³ + 3a²b + 3b²a + b³

You should notice that the coefficients of (the numbers before) a and b are:
     1   1
 1 2 1
1 3 3 1

If you continued expanding the brackets for higher powers, you would find that
the sequence continues:
   1 4 6 4 1
   1   5  10  10  5   1
1   6  15  20  15  6   1
etc

This sequence is known as Pascal"s triangle. Each of the numbers is found by


adding together the two numbers directly above it.
So the 20 in the last line is found by adding together 10 and 10. Each of the 10s in
the line above are found by adding together a 6 and a 4.

So it is possible to expand (a + b) to any whole number power by knowing Pascal"s


triangle.
Example

Find (3 + x)3

The power that we are expanding the bracket to is 3, so we look at the third line
of Pascal’s triangle, which is 1 3 3 1.

So the answer is: 33 + 3 × (32 × x) + 3 × (x2 × 3) + x3(we are replacing a by 3 and b by


x in the expansion of (a + b)3 above)

Generally

It is, of course, often impractical to write out Pascal"s triangle every time, when
all that we need to know are the entries on the nth line. Clearly, the first number
on the nth line is 1. The second number is n. The third number is:
n(n - 1)   .
 1 × 2

In general, the rth number in the nth line is:


    n!       (which is nCr on your calculator)
r! (n - r)!

where n! means ‘n factorial’ and is equal to n × (n-1) × … × 2 × 1

n
Cr is also often written as and is pronounced “n choose r”.

The Binomial Theorem

The Binomial Theorem states that, where n is a positive integer:

 (a + b)n = an + (nC1)an-1b + (nC2)an-2b2 + … + (nCn-1)abn-1 + bn


Example

Expand (4 + 2x)6 in ascending powers of x up to the term in x3

This means use the Binomial theorem to expand the terms in the brackets, but only
go as high as x3.

So to find the answer we substitute 4 for a in the Binomial theorem and 2x for b:

46 + (6C1)(45)(2x) + (6C2)(44)(2x)2 + (6C3)(43)(2x)3 + …


= 4096 + (6 ×1024 ×2x) + (15 ×256 ×4x2) + (20 ×64 ×8x3) + …
= 4096 + 12288x + 15360x2 + 10240x3 + …

The Binomial Theorem for (1 + x)n

The previous version of the binomial theorem only works when n is a positive
integer. If n is any fraction, the binomial theorem becomes:

(1 + x)n = 1 + nx + n(n - 1)x2 + n(n - 1)(n - 2)x3 + ...


1! 2! 3!

PROVIDING |x| < 1

Note that while the previous series stops, this one goes on forever.

Example

Find the expansion of (5x + 2)1/2

We need to transform this so it looks like (1 + x) 1/2, so lets take out a factor of 2:

(5x + 2)1/2 = (2[5x/2 + 1])1/2

Now, where we have 'x' in the above formula, we need 5x/2 and where we have n,
we need ½ .
= 21/2(1 + 5x/2)1/2
= 21/2[ 1 + ½ (5x/2) + ½ × ½ (- ½ )(25x2/4) + ... ]

Remember, this is only valid if -1 < 5x/2 < 1, in other words, -2/5 < x < 2/5

Using Partial Fractions

We can expand more complicated expressions, now, using the method of partial
fractions where appropriate.

Example

Expand          (6x + 3)


  (1 + x)(5x + 2)

We can split this up, using partial fractions, into:

1    + 1 .
1 + x       5x + 2

Now expand (1 + x)-1 and (5x + 2)-1 as described above and add.

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