Ridgewood School of Caloocan, Inc.

31 L27, Acacia St., Rainbow 5, Ph.2 Bagumbong

Caloocan City

Pre-calculus – HANDOUTS
DATE: 3 November 2020
SUBJECT: Pre-calculus
OBJECTIVES:
 Define Pascal’s Triangle
 Construct Pascal’s Triangle
 Actively participate in discussion of Pascal’s Triangle
STRATEGY:
 Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
TOPIC: Pascal’s Triangle
 Pascal's Triangle was originally developed by the ancient Chinese, but
Blaise Pascal was the first person to discover the importance of all of the
patterns it contained. On this page, I explain how the Triangle is formed,
and more importantly, many of its patterns.
 Pascal's triangle is a triangular array constructed by summing adjacent
elements in preceding rows. Pascal's triangle contains the values of the
binomial coefficient. It is named after the 17th century French
mathematician, Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662).
 Construction of Pascal's Triangle
Begin by placing a 11 at the top center of a piece of paper. The next row
down of the triangle is constructed by summing adjacent elements in the
previous row. Because there is nothing next to the 11 in the top row, the
adjacent elements are considered to be 0.

This process is repeated to produce each subsequent row:

This can be repeated indefinitely; Pascal's triangle has an infinite number of rows:

ASSESSMENT:
 Paper and pencil

DATE: 4 November 2020

SUBJECT: Pre-calculus
OBJECTIVES:
 Find the prime numbers in Pascal’s Triangle.
 Find the powers of 2 in Pascal’s Triangle.
 Find the powers of 11 in Pascal’s Triangle.

STRATEGY:
 Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
TOPIC: Prime Numbers, Powers of 2 and 11 in Pascal’s Triangle
 When you look at Pascal's Triangle, find the prime numbers that are the first number in the
row. That prime number is a divisor of every number in that row.
 If the 1st element in a row is a prime number (remember, the 0th element of every row is 1), all
the numbers in that row (excluding the 1's) are divisible by it. For example, in row 7 (1 7 21 35
35 21 7 1) 7, 21, and 35 are all divisible by 7.
 Now let's take a look at powers of 2. If you notice, the sum of the numbers is Row 0 is 1 or 2 0.
Similarly, in Row 1, the sum of the numbers is 1+1 = 2 = 2 1. If you will look at each row down to
row 15, you will see that this is true. In fact, if Pascal's triangle was expanded further past Row
15, you would see that the sum of the numbers of any nth row would equal to 2 n.
 Each row represents the numbers in the powers of 11 (carrying over the digit if it is not a single
number). For example, the numbers in row 4 are 1, 4, 6, 4, and 1 and 11 4 is equal to 14,641.
 Look at row 5. The numbers in row 5 are 1, 5, 10, 10, 5, and 1. Since 10 has two digits, you
have to carry over, so you would get 161,051 which is equal to 11 5.
 If a row is made into a single number by using each element as a digit of the number (carrying
over when an element itself has more than one digit), the number is equal to 11 to the
nth power or 11n when n is the number of the row the multi-digit number was taken from.

ASSESSMENT:
 Paper and pencil

DATE: 5 November 2020

SUBJECT: Pre-calculus
OBJECTIVES:
 Understand Hockey Stick Pattern
 Find the triangular numbers in Pascal’s Triangle.
STRATEGY:
 Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
TOPIC: Hockey Stick Pattern, Triangular and Square Numbers in Pascal' Triangles
 Start with any number in Pascal's Triangle and proceed down the diagonal. Then change the
direction in the diagonal for the last number. That last number is the sum of every other
number in the diagonal.
 If you start with row 2 and start with 1, the diagonal contains the triangular numbers.
 Down the diagonal, as pictured to the right, are the square numbers. You can find them by
summing 2 numbers together. This can be done by starting with 0+1=1=1 2 (in figure 1), then
1+3=4=22 (figure 2), 3+6 = 9=32 (in figure 1), and so on.

*Note that these are represented in 2 figures to make it easy to see the 2 numbers that are
being summed.
 If a diagonal of numbers of any length is selected starting at any of the 1's bordering the sides
of the triangle and ending on any number inside the triangle on that diagonal, the sum of the
numbers inside the selection is equal to the number below the end of the selection that is not
on the same diagonal itself. If you don't understand that, look at the drawing.
1+6+21+56 = 84
1+7+28+84+210+462+924 = 1716
1+12 = 13
 Triangular Numbers are just one type of polygonal numbers. See the section on Polygonal
Numbers for an explanation of polygonal and triangular numbers. The triangular numbers can
be found in the diagonal starting at row 3 as shown in the diagram. The first triangular number
is 1, the second is 3, the third is 6, the fourth is 10, and so on.
 Square Numbers are another type of Polygonal Numbers They are found in the same diagonal
as the triangular numbers. A Square Number is the sum of the two numbers in any circled area
in the diagram. (The colors are different only to distinguish between the separate "rubber
bands"). The nth square number is equal to the nth triangular number plus the (n - ) th triangular
number. (Remember, any number outside the triangle is 0). The interesting thing about these
4-sided polygonal numbers is that their name explains them perfectly. The very first square
number is 02. The second is 12, the third is 22 (4), the fourth is 32 (9), and so on.
ASSESSMENT:
 Paper and pencil

DATE: 6 November2020
SUBJECT: Pre-calculus
OBJECTIVES:
 Know the Binomial expansion.
 Find the Fibonacci in Pascal’s Triangle.
 Find the Catalan Numbers in Pascal’s Triangle.
STRATEGY:
 Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
TOPIC: Binomial Expansion, Fibonacci Sequence, and Catalan Numbers in
Pascal’s Triangle
 When expanding a binomial equation, the coefficients can be found in
Pascal's triangle. For example, if you are expanding (x + y) 8, you would look
at the 8th row to know that these digits are the coefficients of your answer.
This is true for (x + y)n.
 Fibonacci’s Sequence can also be located in Pascal's Triangle. The sum of
the numbers in the consecutive rows shown in the diagram are the first
numbers of the Fibonacci Sequence. The Sequence can also be formed in
a more direct way, very similar to the method used to form the Triangle, by
adding two consecutive numbers in the sequence to produce the next
number. The creates the sequence: 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34, 55,89,144,233,
etc. The Fibonacci Sequence can be found in the Golden Rectangle, the
lengths of the segments of a pentagram, and in nature, and it describes a
curve which can be found in string instruments, such as the curve of a
grand piano.
 If you take the sum of the shallow diagonal, you will get the Fibonacci
numbers.
 Catalan numbers are found by taking polygons, and finding how many ways
they can be partitioned into triangles. These numbers are found in Pascal's
triangle by starting in the 3 rows of Pascal's triangle down the middle and
subtracting the number adjacent to it.
ASSESSMENT:
 Paper and pencil