Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Recall: Pascals Triangle and notice the pattern related to Combinations (nCr):
1
0C0
1
1
1C0
1C1
1
2
1
2C0
2C1
2C2
1
3
3
1
3C0
3C1
3C2
3C3
1
4
6
4
1
4C0
4C1
4C2
4C3 4C4
1
5
10
10
5
1
5C0
5C1
5C2
5C3
5C4 5C5
Pascals Formula: tn,r = tn-1,r-1 + tn-1,r (row n, term r)
&
nCr = n-1Cr-1 + n-1Cr
or, (a + b)n =
n
r 0
Cr a n r b r
Examples:
1. Use combinations to expand (a + b)6
(a + b)6 = 6r=0 6Cra6-rbr
= 6C0a6 + 6C1a5b + 6C2a4b2 + 6C3a3b3 + 6C4a2b4 + 6C5ab5 + 6C6b6
= a6 + 6a5b + 15a4b2 + 20a3b3 + 15a2b4 + 6ab5 + b6
2. Expand: (x + 2/x2)4
(Do on board.)
use (a + b)4 = a4 + 4a3b + 6a2b2 + 4ab3 + b4
and substitute x for a and 2/x2 for b (in brackets!)