BINOMIAL

THEOREM

February 24, 2021

 Question
 

Can you deduce the expansion of without having to multiply out?

Presenting

PASCAL’S TRIANGE

BINOMIAL EXPANSION
 Let’s analyse the following…
 
( 𝑎 + 𝑏 ) 2 =𝑎 2 + 2 𝑎𝑏 + 𝑏2

( 𝑎 +𝑏 ) 3= 𝑎3 +3 𝑎2 𝑏 +3 𝑎 𝑏2 +𝑏 3
 

( 𝑎+𝑏 )4 =𝑎 4 +4 𝑎3 𝑏+6 𝑎 2 𝑏2 + 4 𝑎 𝑏3 +𝑏 4
 

(  𝑎+𝑏 )5=𝑎5 +5 𝑎 4 𝑏 1+10 𝑎 3 𝑏2+10 𝑎2 𝑏 3 +5 𝑎 𝑏4 + 𝑏5

Do you see any pattern in the exponents?

1. The powers of a decrease by one for each successive term, while,

2. The powers of b increase by 1 for each successive term.
3. The sum of the powers of a and b is the same (n) for every term.

But what about the coefficient of each term?

 Pascal’s Triangle
1

1 1
+¿
 
1 2 1

+¿
  +¿
 
1 3 3 1

+¿
 
+¿
  +¿
 

1 4 6 4 1
+¿
 
+¿
 
+¿
 
+¿
 

1 5 10 10 5 1
 Pascal’s
n Triangle

0 1

1 +

2 + +

3 + + +

4 +

5 + + + + +
 Example

Expand the following:

 3 3 2 2 3
( 𝑥+ 𝑦 ) = 𝑥 +3 𝑥 𝑦 +3 𝑥 𝑦 + 𝑦
 
 ( 2 𝑎+𝑏 )5=( 2 𝑎 )5 +5 ( 2 𝑎 )4 𝑏+10 ( 2 𝑎 )3 𝑏2 +10 ( 2 𝑎 )2 𝑏 3 +5 ( 2𝑎 ) 𝑏4 +𝑏 5
 

( 2 𝑎+𝑏 )5=32 𝑎5 +5(16 𝑎4 ) 𝑏+10(8 𝑎 3) 𝑏2 +10(4 𝑎2 )𝑏 3+5 ( 2 𝑎 ) 𝑏 4 +𝑏5

 

5 5 4 3 2 2 3 4 5
 
( 2 𝑎+𝑏 ) =32 𝑎 +80 𝑎 𝑏+80 𝑎 𝑏 + 40 𝑎 𝑏 +10 𝑎 𝑏 +𝑏
( 3 𝑥+2 𝑦 )4 =( 3 𝑥 ) 4+ 4 ( 3 𝑥 )3 ( 2 𝑦 )1+ 6 (3 𝑥 )2 ( 2 𝑦 )2 +4 ( 3 𝑥 )( 2 𝑦 )3 + ( 2 𝑦 )4
 

( 3 𝑥+2 𝑦 )4 =81 𝑥 4 + 4( 27 𝑥 3 )(2 𝑦 )+6 ( 9 𝑥 2) (4 𝑦 2)+ 4 ( 3 𝑥 ) (8 𝑦 3 )+16 𝑦 4

 

( 3 𝑥+2 𝑦 )4 =81 𝑥 4 + 216 𝑥 3 𝑦+ 216 𝑥 2 𝑦 2+96 𝑥 𝑦 3+16 𝑦 4

 
 

If we wanted to expand a binomial expression with a large power,

e.g. , use of Pascal’s triangle would not be recommended because of

the need to generate a large number of rows of the triangle.

 Binomial Theorem

When n is a positive whole number:

When an n is a positive whole number:

 Example

Expand the following:

 𝟑 𝟑 𝟑 −𝟏 𝟑 (𝟑 − 𝟏 ) 𝟑 − 𝟐 𝟐 𝟑
+ 𝒚 ) = 𝒙 +𝟑 𝒙 𝒚+ 𝒙 𝒚 + 𝒚
𝟐!

𝟑 𝟑 𝟐 𝟔 𝟏 𝟐 𝟑
𝒚) = 𝒙 +𝟑 𝒙 𝒚+ 𝒙 𝒚 + 𝒚
𝟐!

𝟑 𝟑 𝟐 𝟐 𝟑
+ 𝒚) =𝒙 +𝟑 𝒙 𝒚 +𝟑 𝒙 𝒚 + 𝒚
  
𝟓 𝟓 𝟒 𝟓(𝟓−𝟏) 𝟓−𝟐 𝟐 𝟓 ( 𝟓−𝟏 ) (𝟓−𝟐) 𝟓−𝟑 𝟑 𝟓(𝟓− 𝟏)(𝟓− 𝟐)(𝟓−𝟑) 𝟓 −𝟒 𝟒 𝟓(𝟓− 𝟏)(𝟓−𝟐)(𝟓−𝟑)(𝟓−𝟒) 𝟓−𝟓 𝟓
( 𝒂+𝒃 ) =𝒂 +𝟓𝒂 𝒃+ 𝒂 𝒃+ 𝒂 𝒃+ 𝒂 𝒃+ 𝒂 𝒃
𝟐! 𝟑! 𝟒! 𝟓!

  𝟐𝟎 𝟑 𝟐 𝟔𝟎 𝟐 𝟑 𝟏𝟐𝟎 𝟓 − 𝟒 𝟒 𝟏𝟐𝟎 𝟓
( 𝒂 +𝒃 ) 𝟓= 𝒂𝟓 +𝟓 𝒂 𝟒 𝒃 + 𝒂 𝒃 + 𝒂 𝒃 + 𝒂 𝒃 + 𝒃
𝟐! 𝟑! 𝟒! 𝟓!

 
( 𝒂 +𝒃 )𝟓= 𝒂𝟓 +𝟓 𝒂 𝟒 𝒃 +𝟏𝟎 𝒂𝟑 𝒃𝟐 +𝟏𝟎 𝒂𝟐 𝒃𝟑 +𝟓 𝒂𝟏 𝒃𝟒 + 𝒃𝟓
 Fast Forward a Bit…
“Combinations”
A combination is a selection of items from a collection

 
Consider the expansion:

 
, a must be chosen from all 6 brackets, so there is just 1 way of getting , that also
goes for
 
will occur 6 times, once for each of the b’s from the 6 brackets.
Therefore the number of ways b can be chosen from the 6 brackets is:
5
 
𝑇h𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑏 𝑖𝑠 𝑡h𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 6 𝐶 1
  
Similarly needs b’s from two of the 6 brackets.
Therefore the number of ways b can be chosen from the 6 brackets is:
4 2
 
𝑇h𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑏 𝑖𝑠 𝑡h𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 6 𝐶 2
 
The same way the coefficient of is
 Binomial Theorem

Generalizing the results:

 
𝒏
𝒏 𝒏−𝒓 𝒓
( 𝒂 +𝒃 ) = ∑ 𝒏 𝑪 𝒓 𝒂 𝒃
𝒓=𝟎
 Example
 

Expand the following:

  𝟑 𝟑 𝟑 −𝟏 𝟑 −𝟐 𝟐 𝟑 −𝟑 𝟑
( 𝒙+ 𝒚 ) = 𝒙 +𝟑 𝑪 𝟏 𝒙 𝒚 +𝟑 𝑪 𝟐 𝒙 𝒚 +𝟑 𝑪𝟑 𝒙 𝒚
  𝟑 𝟑 𝟐 𝟏 𝟐 𝟑
( 𝒙 + 𝒚 ) = 𝒙 +𝟑 𝒙 𝒚 +𝟑 𝒙 𝒚 + 𝒚