FAEN 101: Algebra

Dr. Joseph K. Ansong

FAEN 101 : Algebra J.K.A

2 Dr. Ansong
Contents

5 Binomial Theorem 1
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
5.1.1 Pascal’s Triangle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
5.2 Binomial Coefficients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
5.3 Binomial Theorem for Positive Integers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5.3.1 The ith Term of a Binomial Expansion . . . . . . . . . 5

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FAEN 101 : Algebra J.K.A

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Chapter 5

Binomial Theorem

5.1 Introduction
A binomial is a polynomial of two terms. For example (x+y) or (a+b). The
question is, what happens if we multiply a binomial by itself several times?
In other words, what is the expansion of (a + b)n for any positive integer n?
Let’s consider a few such multiplications starting with the simplest case.

(a + b)0 = 1
(a + b)1 = a + b
(a + b)2 = (a + b) · (a + b)
= a2 + ab + ab + b2
= a2 + 2ab + b2
(a + b)3 = (a + b)(a + b)2 = (a + b)(a2 + 2ab + b2 )
= a3 + 2a2 b + ab2 + a2 b + 2ab2 + b3
= a3 + 3a2 b + 3ab2 + b3

Following the same line of thought, we get

(a + b)4 = a4 + 4a3 b + 6a2 b2 + 4ab3 + b4

As n gets larger, the multiplication becomes cumbersome. So the plan is to

develop a formula for the expansion of (a + b)n for any positive integer n.
Before we find such a formula, it is important to notice a few patterns that
emerge in our expansions above.
1. The a0 s start with the power n and reduce by 1 with each succes-
sive term until 0. For example, in (a + b)3 , the pattern for the a0 s is
a3 , a2 , a1 , a0 .

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FAEN 101 : Algebra J.K.A

2. The b0 s start with a power of 0 and increase by 1 until n. For instance,

in (a + b)3 , we have b0 , b1 , b2 , b3 .

3. The sum of the powers of a and b for each term of the binomial expan-
sion is n. Moreover, each term can be represented by

an−k bk , k = 0, 1, 2, · · · , n

4. There are n + 1 terms in each expansion. For example, (a + b)3 has

3 + 1 = 4 terms in the expansion, and (a + b)4 has 4 + 1 = 5 terms.

5. A more difficult pattern to notice is that of the coefficients of the expan-

sions. In the case of (a + b)3 , the coefficients of the terms are 1, 3, 3, 1.
For small values of n, the so-called Pascal’s Triangle can be used to
obtain the coefficients. This is explained next.

5.1.1 Pascal’s Triangle

The first few rows a the Pascal’s Triangle are shown below

n=0 1
n=1 1 1
n=2 1 2 1
n=3 1 3 3 1
n=4 1 4 6 4 1
n=5 1 5 10 10 5 1
n=6 1 6 15 20 15 6 1
Except for the 10 s at the edges, each number is the sum of the two near-
est numbers above it.
Pascal’s triangle is useful if the power of the expansion n is not large,
otherwise the computations become laborious and occupy too much space.
So we next develop a general formula for the binomial coefficients for any
positive integer n.

5.2 Binomial Coefficients

Remember we mentioned that each term of the binomial expansion can be
represented by an−k bk where k = 0, 1, 2, · · · n. Now consider the expansion of
(a + b)4 :
(a + b)4 = a4 + 4a3 b + 6a2 b2 + 4ab3 + b4

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FAEN 101 : Algebra J.K.A

Apart from the coefficients of a4 and b4 (which is 1 in each case), notice that
the coefficient, 4 (i.e. for k = 1) of the second term, 4a3 b, can be computed
as
4! 4 · 3!
= =4
1!3! 3!
The coefficient of the third term (i.e. for k = 2) can be calculated as

4! 4 · 3 · 2!
= =6
2!2! 2!2!
And finally, the coeffiecient of the fourth term (i.e. for k = 3) is given

4! 4 · 3!
= =4
3!1! 3!
From the pattern above, we find that in general, the coefficient of the term
an−k bk in the expansion of (a + b)n is given by

n!
k!(n − k)!

and is written in short form as nk . This is pronounced as “n choose k”.

It is sometimes denoted by n Cr or C(n, r) and pronounced “n combination

k”. It is largely applied in a branch of mathematics called combinatorics,
and denotes
the number of ways to choose k elements from a set of n. The
number nk is called the binomial coefficient of each coefficient of a term
of a binomial expansion. This is summarized below.

Formula for Binomial Coefficients

The coefficient of the term an−k bk in the binomail expansion (a + b)n is given
by  
n n!
=
k k!(n − k)!
where k = 0, 1, 2, · · · n, are whole numbers.

Remark. 1. Note that 0! = 1, and

 
n n!
2. = =1
0 0!n!
Example 1. Evaluate each binomial coefficient

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FAEN 101 : Algebra J.K.A

(a) 53 (b) 99 (c) 85

Solution. (a)
 
5 5! 5 · 4 · 3!
= = = 10
3 3!2! 3!2

(b)
 
9 9!
= =1
9 9!0!

(c)
 
8 8! 8 · 7 · 6 · 5!
= =
5 5!3! 5!(3 · 2 · 1)
8·7·6
= = 56
6
Now that we have an expression for each coefficient, we can now represent
each term in the expansion as
 
n n−k k
a b , k = 0, 1, 2, · · · n
k

Thus, the information gathered so far can put into a nice theorem called the
binomial theorem, for the expansion of (a + b)n . This theorem is stated next.

5.3 Binomial Theorem for Positive Integers

If n is a positive integer, then
n  
n
X n
(a + b) = an−k bk
k=0
k
         
n n n n−1 n n−2 2 n n−1 n n
= a + a b+ a b + ··· + ab + b .
0 1 2 n−1 n

Example 2. Expand the following binomials

(a) (x + 2)6 (c) (2x + 1)4

(b) (x − 1)5 (d) (2x2 − 1)4

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FAEN 101 : Algebra J.K.A

Solution. (a) (x + 2)6

             
6 6 6 6 5 6 4 2 6 3 3 6 2 4 6 5 6
(x+2) = x+ x ·2+ x ·2 + x ·2 + x ·2 + x·2 + ·26
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
= x6 + 12x5 + 60x4 + 160x3 + 240x2 + 192x + 64
(b) (x − 1)5
           
55 5 5 4 5 3 2 5 2 3 5 4 5
(x−1) = x+ x (−1)+ x (−1) + x (−1) + x(−1) + (−1)5
0 1 2 3 4 5
= x5 − 5x4 + 10x3 − 10x2 + 5x − 1
(c) (2x + 1)4
         
44 4 4 3 4 2 4 4
(2x + 1) = (2x) + (2x) + (2x) + (2x) +
0 1 2 3 4
= 16x4 + 32x3 + 24x2 + 8x + 1
(d) (2x2 − 1)4
         
2 44 2 4 4 2 3 4 2 2 2 4 2 3 4
(2x −1) = (2x ) + (2x ) (−1)+ (2x ) (−1) + (2x )(−1) + (−1)4
0 1 2 3 4
= 16x8 − 32x6 + 24x4 − 16x2 + 1

5.3.1 The ith Term of a Binomial Expansion

The ith term of the binomial expansion (a + b)n is given by
 
n
an−(i−1) bi−1
i−1

Note that the ith term occurs at position

 (k+1),
 so that we can put k = (i−1)
n n−k k
in the expression for each coefficient, a b , to get the formula above.
k
Example 3. Find the fifth term of the expansion of (3x2 + 2y)6 .
Solution. n = 6, i = 5, a + 3x2 , b = 2y. Thus, the fifth term is given by
 
6
(3x2 )2 (2y)4 = (15)(9)x4 · (16)y 4
4
= 2160x4 y 4

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FAEN 101 : Algebra J.K.A

Exercise. (1) Evaluate the binomial coefficient

(a) 63 (c) 92 15




(e) 15

(b) 72 (d) 90 11




(f) 8

2. Expand the binomial

√
(a) (x − y)4 (e) ( x + y)4 (h) (2x−1 + y −1 )4
√ √
(b) (z + y)5 (f) ( x − y)5 (i) (s−2 + s2 )6
(c) (2x − 1)7 
x y
3 
2 x
4
(d) (a − 4)5 (g) + (j) −
y x x 2

3. Find the indicated term without expanding

(a) (2x + y)11 ; seventh term (c) (x−1/2 + x1/2 )10 ; sixth term
 13
3 x
(b) (3x − y)10 ; eigth term (d) − ; seventh term
x 3

4. Find the term that contains y 8 in the binomial expansion of

(2x − y)10

5. Find the term that contains b9 in the binomial expansion of

(a − b)8

6. Find the middle term of the binomial expansion of

(3x − y)10

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