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Worksheet 4.12 The Binomial Theorem: Section 1
Worksheet 4.12 The Binomial Theorem: Section 1
Worksheet 4.12 The Binomial Theorem: Section 1
We wish to be able to expand an expression of the form (a + b)n . We can do this easily for
n = 2, but what about a large n? It would be tedious to manually multiply (a + b) by itself 10
times, say. There are two methods of expanding an expression of this type without doing all
the multiplications involved. The first method we will look at is called Pascals triangle. The
first 5 rows of Pascals triangle are shown:
1
1 1
1 2 1
1 3 3 1
1 4 6 4 1
Pascals triangle is particularly useful when dealing with small n. The triangle is easy to
remember as each entry is the sum of the two right and left entries on the line above, and the
sides are always one. Thus for the second entry of line five we get
1 3
T
4
The entries in Pascals triangle tell us the coefficients when we expand expansions like (a + b)n .
Look at (a + b)2 = (a + b)(a + b) = a2 + 2ab + b2 = 1a2 + 2ab + 1b2 . Notice that the coefficients
in front of each term 1 2 1 appear in the 3rd line of Pascals triangle.
What about (a + b)3 = (a + b)(a + b)(a + b) = a3 + 3a2 b + 3ab2 + b3 . Notice that the coefficients
come from the 4th line of Pascals triangle as 1 3 3 1.
You may also notice that as the power of a decreases, the power of b increases. This phe-
nomenon can be generalised.
For the expansion of (a + b)n we need the (n + 1)th line of Pascals triangle. The first term in
the line has an an b0 and then the powers of a decrease and the powers of b increase, so the
second term will be an1 b1 and so on, until the last tern has a0 bn .
Example 1 : Expand (a + b)5 . We use the 6th line of Pascals triangle to obtain
(a + b)5 = a5 + 5a4 b + 10a3 b2 + 10a2 b3 + 5ab4 + b5 .
1
Notice that the powers of a and b in each term always add to n, where n is the power to which
(a+b) is raised. In the above example we can see the power of a and b in each term always
adds to 5.
If you wish to use Pascals triangle on an expansion of the form (ax + b)n , then some care is
needed. The (n + 1)th row is the row we need, and the 1st term in the row is the coefficient of
(ax)n b0 . The second term in the row is the coefficient of (ax)n1 b1 . The last term in the row
- the (n + 1)th term - is the coefficient of (ax)0 bn . Care should be taken when minus signs are
involved.
Example 3 : Expand the expression (ax + b)3 . The 4th row of Pascals triangle is
1 3 3 1. So
(ax + b)3 = (ax)3 + 3(ax)2 b + 3(ax)1 b2 + b3
= a3 x3 + 3a2 bx2 + 3ab2 x + b3
Notice that the powers of a and b in each term always add to give the power of the
expansion. This is always the case.
Example 4 : Expand the expression (2x3)3 . Using the 4th row of pascals triangle:
Example 6 : Find the constant term (the term that is independent of x) in the
expansion of (x 2)5 . The constant term is the last term, and is (2)5 . Notice
that the minus sign is important.
2
Example 7 : Find the 4th term in the expansion of (2x 3)5 . The 4th term in the
6th line of Pascals triangle is 10. So the 4th term is
The second method to work out the expansion of an expression like (ax + b)n uses binomial
coefficients. This method is more useful than Pascals triangle when n is large.
Exercises:
3. What line of Pascals triangle is 1, 10, 45, 120, 210, 252, 210, 120, 45, 10, 1?
4. Complete this line of Pascals triangle 1, 8, 28, 56, 70, 56, . . . . Hence also write the next
line of Pascals triangle.
Calculating coefficients in binomial functions, (a + b)n , using Pascals triangle can take a long
time for even moderately large n. For example, it might take you a good 10 minutes to calculate
the coefficients in (x + 1)8 . Instead we can use what we know about combinations.
So it turns out that the numbers in Pascals triangle, which we saw were coefficients in binomial
expansions, are actually the numbers that come up in combinations, n Ck . For simplicity of
n
n
writing we will define Ck = k .
3
Definition 2 : The binomial theorem gives a general formula for expanding all
binomial functions:
n
n
X n ni i
(x + y) = x y
i=0
i
n n n n1 1 n nr r n n
= x + x y + + x y + + y ,
0 1 r n
recalling the definition of the sigma notation from Worksheet 4.6.
4
Example 4 : Expand x1 + 2x2
4 4 3 2
1 2 4 1 4 1 2 4 1 2 2 4 1
+ 2x = + 2x + (2x ) + (2x2 )3
x 0 x 1 x 2 x 3 x
4
+ (2x2 )4
4
1 8
= 4 + + 24x2 + 32x5 + 16x8
x x
4
The binomial theorem tells us that
20 X 20 20
3 2 20 3i 2 20i X 20 3i(20i) 20i
x + = x = x 2 .
x i=0
i x i=0
i
So the power of x is 4i 20. We need to set this to zero to have the constant term,
so we need 4i 20 = 0 4i = 20 i = 5. Thus the coefficient is
20 15
2 = 508, 035, 072.
5
Exercises:
1. Expand
5. Find the exact value of (1 0.1)3 without the use of a calculator. Confirm your answer
with a calculator.
5
Exercises for Worksheet 4.12
6
Answers for Worksheet 4.12
Section 1
1. Not given
3. 11th line
4. 1, 8, 28, 56, 70, 56, 28, 8, 1 and 1, 9, 36, 84, 126, 126, 84, 36, 9, 1
Section 2
2. 5 C1 24 , 5
C2 23 , 5
C3 22
3. 7 C1 (2)6 , 7
C2 (2)5 , 7
C4 (2)3
4. 7 C2 22 (3)5 , 0
5. 0.729
Exercises 4.12
3. 1.4641