A generalisation of the fact that the sum of two consecutive triangles is a square,

or more fun with Pascal's Triangle.

Paul David Jackson November 09

Introduction

It is well known that the sum of two consecutive triangle numbers is always a square, and that the
triangles {1, 3, 6, 10, ....}, occur on a diagonal in the familiar Pascal's Triangle. See below.

It is also easy to see that obviously the second diagonal consists of just the integers, so we can take
these one at a time. And the fourth diagonal is made up of the tetrahedrals and so on.
Now notice that 1  0 + 4  1 + 1  4 = 8, and 1  1 + 4  4 + 1  10 = 27, and 1  4 + 4  10 + 1  20 = 64,
where we have used three consecutive tetrahedrals and we get cubes. So for the next diagonal we might
guess we need to take the elements four at a time multiplied by some unknown coefficients, and the
resulting sum would give perfect fourth powers. But how do we prove this in general and how do we
find the unknown coefficients?
Using generating functions
First let us make some definitions.
Let tk be the k diagonal of Pascal's Triangle, and let the elements in a particular diagonal be Ti, now we
th

are assuming that there exist k – 1, coefficients ai , that when multiplied together with k – 1 consecutive
Ti, sum to form the integers all raised to the k – 1th power.

Now the connection between generating functions and the diagonals in Pascal's Triangle is well known,
in fact one could look at this as the generalisation of the fact that expansion of 1/(1-z) gives a the
geometric series whose coefficients are just 1's viz the first diagonal of Pascal's Triangle, and this is just
the generating function of the series {1, 1, 1, ........}. In general we have;
1 
æ k + r - 1ö r
(1 - z ) k
 å ç
r 0 è r
÷z
ø

which we will denote as Fk(z), {i}. Also given in [1]

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So we are trying to use this gadget which has as its coefficients the elements of each diagonal of
Pascal's Triangle, to find our coefficients.
Now if we took the geometric series(GS); 1 + z + z2 + z3 + z4 + ......... + zr + ........ , and differentiated
with respect to z, we would get a series with coefficients running through the integers, beginning at 1,
but with each power decreased by one, and if then multiplied all terms by z, our series would have
coefficients, and powers both running through all the integers starting at 1,. And it is easy to see that if
we repeat this procedure we will get a series with all coefficients running through the squares of natural
numbers.
So to do this a little more formally we define the recurrence relation Pk +1(z) = zP'k (z), for k = 1, 2, 3, ....
where ' means the differential of , and
P1(z) = 1/(1-z), which we expand to get the GS geometric series then we have;
P1(z) = 1 + z + z2 + z3 + z4 + ......... + zr + ........ , and as we noted above all the coefficients are 1's, now if
we differentiate P1(z) and multiply by z, we have;
P2(z) = zP'1(z) = z + 2z2 + 3z3 + 4z4 + ......... + rzr + ........ , now we have all the integers as coefficients.
So say we repeat the process to get;
P3(z) = zP'2(z) = z + 22z2 + 32z3 + 42z4 + ......... + r2zr + ........ , and we have all coefficients squares.

So using the recurrence relation above it is easy to see that in general;

Pk +1(z) = z + 2kz2 + 3kz3 + 4kz4 + ......... + rkzr + ........ , {ii}
that is we know that XXX

Our next task is to find some way to involve the elements of Pascal's Triangle explicitly, but we are
kind of using the above generating function {i} it is just hidden in the right hand side of
Pk +1(z) = zP'k (z), too see this note that if we find P2(z) = zP'1(z) using P1(z) = 1/(1-z), and differentiating
the right hand side is z/(1-z)2, which is just zF(2) . Now if we differentiate z/(1-z)2 , we get;
1/(1-z)2 + 2z/(1-z)3 = (1+ z)/(1-z)3, and when we multiply by z, we have P3(z) = zP'2(z) equal to a
polynomial times F(3), and it seems obvious that we can express all Pk +1(z) in this way. Now the crucial
part is to notice what happens when we expand the right hand side of P3(z) = zP'2(z), that is
(z+z2)/(1-z)3, from which we have;
= (z+z2)(1 + 3z + 6z2 + 10z3 + 15z4 + .... )
= z + 3z2 + 6z3 + 10z4 + ....
+ z2 + 3z3 + 6z4 + ....
= z + 4z2 + 9z3 + 16z4 + .... , with all the coefficients squares like we obtained above.
Now doing the same thing for the next case that is using tetrahedrals we have
P4(z) = zP'3(z) = (z+4z2 +z3)/(1-z)4
= (z+4z2 +z3)(1 +4z + 10z2 + 20z3 + 35z4 + .... )
= z + 4z2 + 10z3 + 20z4 + ....
+ 4z2 + 16z3 + 40z4 + ....
+ z3 + 4z4 + ....
= z + 8z2 + 27z3 + 64z4 + .... , and we get all coefficients as cubes, just like we did above.

So the two polynomials in the above examples viz z + z2 , and z + 4z2 + z3 , act to split the associated
GS's into copies of with shifted powers, that when summed give coefficients that are powers. And in
fact it straight forward though tedious to calculate these polynomials for the first few values of k.

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Call them Qk, for k = 2, 3, 4, ...., then we find;

Q2(z) = z,
Q3(z) = z+z2 ,
Q4(z) = z+4z2 +z3 ,
Q5(z) = z+11z2 +11z3+z4 ,
Q6(z) = z+26z2 +66z3 +26z4 +z5 ,
Next we will prove the general pattern, that is show;

Let tk be the k diagonal of Pascal's Triangle, then if n is a natural number, nk – 1 is expressible as a

th

linear combination of k – 1 consecutive elements of tk .

Proof ; this is probably obvious from the work above, but we will try and show this in a more formal
manner.
Adapting the method above, and really focusing on the gadget as a recurrence relation for giving the
next generating function, so Pk +1(z) = zP'k (z), (where ' denotes the differential of), and we set
Pk (z) = Qk(z)Fk(z), with Fk(z) = 1/(1-z)k , and Qk(z) a polynomial to be found. Then

zP'(k)(z) = z{Q'k Fk + QkF'k} = z{(1-z)Q'k + kQk}Fk+1 = Qk+1(z)Fk +1(z).

remembering that Q and F are functions of z but ignoring this when necessary for the sake of clarity,
thus we find;
Qk+1(z) = (z+z2)Q'k(z)+ kzQk(z). {iii}
Hence this shows that Pk +1(z) = zP'k (z), is always expressible as the product of some polynomial Q and
F the generating function defined above as {i}, giving the elements in a diagonal of Pascal's Triangle,
for the appropriate value of k. But we found above Pk +1(z) = zP'k (z), also has an expansion as a
geometric series with coefficients that run through the powers of the integers, that is in {ii}.

It seems clear from {iii} that given the first Q is 1, that each successive Q generated will be polynomial,
in powers of z from 1, to k – 1, inclusive. This is because if we put z=1, in the expression {i} its value
is Qk+1(1) = (1-1)Q'k(1)+ kQk(1) = kQk(1) = k!. So the value of the next is just k times the previous Q.
This is also obvious using the first few values of Q inductively and for k > 1 the general form is as in
{iii}.
This seems to be a sort of version of Pascal's Triangle, and what we need to show is that we don't get
any gaps in the powers, that is no coefficients vanish.

The most straight forward way of showing that we get all powers of z, from 1, to k-1, for Qk+1(z) is just
to deal with the general expression = z{Q'k(z)-zQ'k(z)+ kQk(z)}, in terms of general sums, with general
coefficients ar .
So

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Now the first and last terms are non-zero, so all we have to check is that the general term in the sum is
never zero, and as the values of r take all values between 1, and k-2, means we get all the powers in this
range. As we assume ar+1 > ar , and as k> 0, and 1> -k, it follows that (r+1)ar+1 > (k-r)ar , we see that
none of the adjacent coefficients are equal to each-other and so none of the next Q are zero, so the
result we require follows easily. {iv} also shows that Qk(z) has k – 1 terms, and thus will split Fk(z)
expanded as a GS into k – 1 consecutive elements of tk .
The general term in the sum can be used to generate the coefficients recursively, from the previous
expression for Q, also we see that it uses thus two terms from the previous expression for Q therefore
the method of formation is related to Pascal's Triangle.

Therefore by using induction with the first few expressions for Q, we have shown the following;
Let tk be the k diagonal of Pascal's Triangle, then if n is a natural number, nk – 1, is expressible as a
th

linear combination of k – 1 consecutive elements of tk .

An algorithm to generate coefficients

We could generate the necessary coefficients using {iv} but perhaps we could simplify this formula, so
we could say deal with finding the coefficients needed to form say, cubes using consecutive tetrahedral
numbers, or a general case, as this is really a jazzed up version of Pascal's Triangle. So say we are given
coefficients 1, 4, 1, we can find coefficients in the next row for k = 5.
Back to the polynomial version, we can re-write the last expression in {iv} to include the first and last
terms with the general coefficient of zr , as rar + (k+1 – r)ar-1, with limits r = 1, to r = k, and set a0 = 0,
and ak = 0. Thus given the coefficients in Qk(z) we can find those in Qk+1(z).
But we do not really have to think of the polynomial at all as if we have coefficients ar-1, and rar , in
Qk(z), we just use
rar + (k+1 – r)ar-1, to find the rth coefficient in Qk+1(z) . So for Q4(z) , say we want the second
coefficient, we have k = 3, and r = 2, so we need the r-1th and rth coefficients viz 1, and 1 and
k+1 – r = 4 -2 = 2, so we have 2  1 + 2  2 = 4, and the kth coefficient, that is the 3rd is given in the same
way. This time we have k = 3, r = 3, so we need the second and third coefficients, viz 1, and 0, and we
obtain; 1  1 + 3  0 = 1, of course. So really we are defining an algorithm, which possibly could be
simplified further.

Then playing with the above and noticing trivially that in rar + (k+1 – r)ar-1, (k+1 – r) +r = k+1, also
because of symmetry we really only need find half of the coefficients. The way this gadget works
seems to suggest that a matrix approach may be a good idea.

Swapping around the terms in the general coefficient so the smallest index is first we notice that, the
sum of the coefficient and the index of the first is k, viz; k+1 – r + (r-1) = k. so when finding the new
coefficients (new ar , call these Ar), in the expression for fifth powers,
we have;
A1 = 5a0 + 1a1
A2 = 4a1 + 2a2
A3 = 3a2 + 3a3
A4 = 2a3 + 4a4
A5 = 1a4 + 5a5
with the ar , all from the expression for fourth powers, with k = 4.

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So to form the expression for fifth powers we find the coefficients as above then use five consecutive
t6's, in order from smallest to biggest with the relevant coefficient Ar. So the algorithm could take a
tabular form.
We also notice that the coefficients in the diagonals sum to k = 5.
Therefore we generate the coefficients in Qk+1(z).

We could also think of this in a Pascal's triangle type way;

1
/ \
1 1
\ / \
1 4 1
\ / \ /
1 11 11 1
\ / \ / \ /
1 26 66 26 1
/ \ / \ / \ / \ /
1 57 302 302 57 1

First row gives us natural numbers, second squares, third, cubes, and so on. So for the last row, the
table that is the sixth, we have k + 1 = 7, and hence 57, is formed by taking 5  1 + 2  26, as r = 2,
with 1, and 26 from the the row above, the fifth row, and the coefficients being k – 1 = 5, and r = 2. The
third term
(r = 3), in this row, viz 302, being formed from 4  26+3  66, using 26(in the second position), and 66
(in the third), from the row above, with coefficients k – 2 = 4, and r = 3.

The obvious question here is, does there exist a closed form for the coefficients, like there is for the
Binomial coefficients?

So gathering results, we have;

Let tk be the k diagonal of Pascal's Triangle, then if n is a natural number, nk – 1 is expressible as a

th

linear combination of k – 1 consecutive elements of tk .

Let the k – 1 consecutive elements of tk ; be T1, T2, T3, ...., Tk -1 ,

then nk – 1 = a1T1 + a2T2 + a3T3 + ...... + ak – 1Tk – 1.
A coefficient in the expression for nk – 1 can be found using the formula; (k+1 – r)ar-1 +rar , where the
ar , are the given coefficients; a1, a2 ,a3 ,.......,ak – 1, from the previous case, with,a0 = 0, and ak = 0.

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 More fun with Pascal's Triangle!
Here we make some observations and try to draw some conclusions.
Looking at the above, we could fancifully or trivially, say we have made a map between the coefficients
in Pascal's Triangle to the powers of the integers, the sum of which have a value given by the zeta
function for negative values of k. If k – 1 > 0, is even then the sum is zero, so for instance, the sum of
all the squares is just zero.
Also perhaps in a less trivial manner, putting z = -1, in{i}, gives the alternating sums of all elements in
each diagonal tk. Normally we would take these to be divergent series but they can be assigned value
1/2k, see [3], page 479. Also notice that as k  this sum tends to zero, but as each row is just the
expansion of (1+z)n, its value tends to infinity as n does. So even though it is probably very fanciful to
make the assignment; diagonal = 1/row, as we are kind of cheating because in each row we are putting
z = 1 and not -1; we will do it anyway.

But as the sums of the elements all taken positive in the first two diagonals of Pascal's Triangle are
given by (0) = -1/2 , and (-1) = -1/12, can we then deduce that the sums of all the diagonals with
members positive are related to (-n) ?
We have just shown above that the elements in the diagonals can be used in linear sums to give the
powers of the natural numbers, but does this necessarily imply that we can sum these to obtain the
values given by (-n) ?

Also the sums of the reciprocals, all taken positively, of the members of the diagonals all have value
(k-1)/(k-2) for k >2, so for instance the sum of all the reciprocals of the triangles is just 2. As the first
diagonal consists of 1's the sum of reciprocals is just the same, but the sum of the reciprocals of the
positive integers is of course, the harmonic series, which is divergent and so seems special as it has no
sum, in any sense.
So there seems to be some kind of relationship between the rows and the diagonals, with the harmonic
series being fancifully seen as a pivot around infinity.

Is there something going on here, some kind of global symmetry, or is this just some a trivial
consequence of the fact that we are messing around with Binomial coefficients, and generating
functions, got from the geometric series?

Perhaps a less fantastical way of looking at this is to think about how under various manipulations that
we can and have performed on Pascal's Triangle certain aspects remain invariant. So what we are really
interested in are the non obvious symmetries that come about when we transform Pascal's Triangle in
some way.
It is as if it has some kind of inherent indestructibility. In some sense this is probably unsurprising, as
how the coefficients arise is from a very ubiquitous and fundamental process that of adding recursively.

6
 Examples
We shall explore informally, a little the idea that Pascal's Triangle can be transformed but still be
unchanged in a few examples.

For instance to obtain the alternating 'sum' of all the tetrahedrals, that is the fourth diagonal we can use
Euler's method of forward differences, as given in [3], page 468, which give the differences to be
1, -3, 3 -1, and thus we have sum;
S(t4) = 1 – 4 + 10 – 20 + 35 – ......... = 1/2 – 3/4 + 3/8 – 1/16 = 1/24 = 1/16, and tabulating the process
we have;

S 1 4 10 20 35
first differences -3 -6 -10 -15
second 3 4 5 6
third -1 -1 -1 ....
fourth 0 0 ...

And we see that we have the coefficients of Pascal's Triangle again, in fact from the expansions of
(1-x ), raised to the powers 3, 4, 5, ... kind of cut off through S. But of course each tetrahedral is just the
sum of so many triangles, and each triangle is the sum of so many integers, so we are kind of undoing
the formation of Pascal's Triangle. So intuitively it seems obvious that the pattern will continue, and
that the differences we need will be the appropriate Binomial coefficients.

So we could view this as a another gadget that transforms the elements of Pascal's Triangle, in a very
similar manner to that we used in a previous article, Fun with Pascal's Triangle [4] to sum the
reciprocals of the elements of the diagonals.

In general using the method of forward differences means that an element in the row of nth differences
will be expressible as a sum in terms of members of the original sequence with Binomial coefficients
that is elements in Pascal's Triangle.

We can also use the same technique to do the same for the alternating sum of powers of the natural
numbers- let these be called p(n). For instance summing the alternating sum of the squares we get;
p(2) = 1-4+9-16 + ... = 1/2 – 3/4+2/8 = 0, which is what we expected.
That is we form;
p 1 4 9 16 25 .....
first differences -3 -5 -7 -9
second 2 2 2 2 ......
third 0 0 0 ....
And so the first diagonal of forward differences are {1, -3, 2, }
As mentioned above, if n is even then (-n) = 0, but factoring the zeta function we get for positive n, in
general S(n) = (1-2n+1)(-n), whose value we could find using Bernoulli numbers.
Now if we use Euler's method of forward differences for the cases up to and including the case for
n = 5, we find our calculations are consistent with the results we would get using the zeta function.
Below we tabulate the first diagonals of forward differences in rows.

7
 TABLE 1
For powers, Forward differences Sum of each
row
n;
1 1 -1 0
2 1 -3 2 0
3 1 -7 12 -6 0
4 1 -15 50 -60 24 0
5 1 -31 180 390 360 -120 0

Now we notice that the last element in each row has magnitude n! and the sum of all the elements in
each row is zero, does the pattern continue?

In general using Euler's method of differences to sum the series, we know that the forward differences
can be written as linear sums comprising the terms of the series multiplied with binomial coefficients.
So for example in the fourth row, viz, n = 4, we have 1-3(24 )+3(34)-1(44) = -60, and 50 in same row is
1-2(24)+1(34) = 50. If we designate by k from 1 onwards the position in each column the value
occupies, then for 50, we have; k = 3, -60, k = 3, then we can write down a general sum for each value
in the table in terms of n, and k, and appropriate Binomial coefficients. That is in terms of row and
column position (n, k). So a general sum of the members of the first diagonal of the table of differences
for the alternating sum of powers of natural numbers is;
k -1
æ k - 1ö
(n, k )  å (-1) r ç ÷ (r + 1) , {v}
n

r 0 è r ø

which is valid for k > 0.

Now if we made another table where we divide each value in each column in the first table by (k – 1)!,
and make all entries positive, we obtain;

TABLE 2
For powers, Forward differences divided by (k – 1)! in the kth column Sum of each
row
n;
Bell numbers
1 1 1 2
2 1 3 1 5
3 1 7 6 1 15
4 1 15 25 10 1 52
5 1 31 90 65 15 1 203

Then we have a table of Stirling numbers of the second kind whose sums, for each n, are Bell numbers,
the number of partitions of a set with n+1 members.
Now the Stirling numbers of the second kind, are the number of partitions of a set with m elements viz
{1,2, 3, ...., m} into k classes, the number of these denote by {m k} . Where m = n+1 in terms of the
values of our table.
8
So for example, all the partitions of 4 into 2 classes is just;
12,34; 123,4; 1,234;
13,24; 124,3;
14,23; 134,2;
and we see there are 7 of them, with 7, just (3, 2) divided by (2-1)!.
See [5] page 19, where a formula is derived for {m,k} which when scaled appropriately by (k -1)! gives
our formula {v} for the numbers in our first table, and it is easy to show this in general.
Then this answers our first question about the last element in each row being n! as the Stirling number
of the second kind,{m m} which is the number of partitions of m into m classes – must be 1, and we
are multiplying by n!

We could interpret the forward differences for sums of powers to be a gadget, via {v}, for transforming
the Binomial coefficients picking n things k at a time into the Stirling numbers partitioning m into k
classes.
And there is the connection to Bell numbers.

Now we deal with the sum of each row in table 1, being zero.
First we mention that this is not necessarily true in general for all suitable sequences, for instance
dealing with the alternating sum of odd positive integers, the first diagonal of differences is
1, -2 , 0, and the sum is -1, but the second diagonal of differences is 3, -2 , 0 sum 1, third has sum 3,
fourth 5, so we are just getting the the first row viz the series repeated. But for this sequence we have
a-1 = -1, then a0 = 1, a1 = 3,....so we guess the first diagonal has sum in general a-1, so for powers of
integers this will be zero. Using this assumption and the one that says the differences eventually
become zero, means we can deal with the differences in terms of the original sequence and this will
lead to the result we desire.

So to this end let the sequence be S, so we have

S = {a0 , a1 ,a2 ,a3 , ......, ar , ar +1 ,ar +2 ,..........},

and let subsequent rows of differences be designated by D[1], D[2], ...

then if we just deal with the general differences in subscripts, r, r +1, ... , we have;
D[0] = {ar , ar +1 , ar +2 ,.......... }
D[1] = { ar - ar +1 , ar +1 - ar +2 , ar +2 - ar +3 ,....... }
D[2] = { ar - 2ar +1 + ar +2 , ar +1 - 2ar +2 + ar +3 ,....... }
D[3] = { ar - 3ar +1 + 3ar +2 - ar +3 ,........ }
now for the sake of argument say all the differences in D[3] are zero, then it follows that,
ar = 3ar +1 - 3ar +2 + ar +3 , then summing the first three terms in the next diagonal from left to right, viz
ar +1 + ar +1 - ar +2 + ar +1 - 2ar +2 + ar +3 = ar , which is exactly what we are trying to prove where for the
powers of integers ar = 0, with r = -1, that is the term before ar , in the sequence of powers of natural
numbers for the case the squares.

So we need to prove the general case, but this is easy, as our section of differences beginning with
subscript r, means we with have some sequence D[m] with all members zero. Designate the first of
these as U[m,r], then this has an expansion beginning ar - mar +1 + mCr+2ar +2 - mCr+3ar +3 ,......, with the
appropriate coefficients from the Binomial expansion of x(1 – x)m, where we substitute for x, with
power i, a member of the sequence with subscript, r + i – 1.

9
Then U[m,r] = 0, means, ar = mar +1 - mCr+2ar +2 + mCr+3ar +3 ,......, + ar + m , and thinking about how the
coefficients in Pascal's Triangle are formed viz the Tetrahedrals are just the sum of the first of so many
Triangles and the Triangles are the sum of the first of so many integers, and so on, leads us to see that
the sum of U[0, r+1], U[1, r+1],U[2, r+1], ......., U[m – 1, r+m], is just ar , as required.

So for any sequence where all of the mth row of differences are zero, the sum of the diagonal through
the rows of differences is just the member of the sequence immediately before the diagonal, and so the
sequence will appear in its entirety in the mth +1 row but shifted diagonally to the right relative to the
sequence above.
Therefore as the term before 1 in any sequence of the powers of natural numbers is zero means that the
sum of the first diagonal of forward differences will always be zero as required.

We have looked at various transformations of Pascal's Triangle in the contexts of generating functions
and summing divergent series, and it seems to inherent in these processes that metaphorically at least
Pascal's Triangle is never completely erased. We note we have hardly scrapped the surface of a whole
iceberg of relationships, and connections.

References

[1] Annotations to Abramowitz & Stegun By Linas Vepstas <http://linas.org/art-

gallery/abramowitz/html/AS-annotions.html>

[2] Baez Euler's Proof That 1 + 2 + 3 + ... = -1/12 John C. Baez, December 19, 2003
<http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/qg-winter2004/zeta.pdf>

[3] THEORY AND APPLICATION OF INFINITE SERIES BY DR. KONRAD KNOPP

<http://www.archive.org/stream/theoryandapplica031692mbp/theoryandapplica031692mbp_djvu.txt>
[4] Fun with Pascal's Triangle by Paul David Jackson <http://www.scribd.com/doc/17786292/Fun-
With-Pascals-Triangle>

[5] generatingfunctionology by Herbert S. Wilf <http://www.math.upenn.edu/~wilf/DownldGF.html>

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