Binomial Coefficients and Binomial Theorem​.

(nk) ​ (n choose k) is the number of ways to choose k objects from n distinct objects. In
other words, you can think of it as the number of ways to select subsets of size k from a
set of size n.

This expression is often called a binomial coefficient because it occurs in the binomial
expansion. For example, if we expand (x+y)​3 ​the coefficients on the terms will in fact be
as follows:

(x+y)​3 ​= x​3​ + 3x​2​y + 3y​2​ + y​3 ​= (30) x​3​ + (31) x​2​y + (32) xy​2​ + (33) y​3

Similarly, the expansion of (x+y)​4 ​is (fill the coefficients yourself):

(x+y)​4 ​= (40) x​4​ + (41) x​3​y + (42) x​2​y​2​ + (43) xy​3​ + (44) y​4

How is the coefficient for a particular term determined? Suppose you write out the
product of
(x+y)​4 ​as follows:

(x+y)​4 ​=(x+y)(x+y)(x+y)(x+y)

As you multiply out the terms, from each parenthesis you select either an x or a y (so,
overall, before collecting like terms, you will get 2​4​ =16 terms). In how many ways can
you select, say, 3 x’s and 1 y out of 4 parentheses? You either choose from which
parentheses your x’s will come (4 choose 3) or from which parenthesis your y will come
(4 choose 1). Of course, (43) = (41)

In this way you can find a coefficient for any terms in an arbitrary binomial expansion.
For example, the coefficient of x​3​y​4​ in (x+y)​7​ is the number of ways to pick 3
parentheses from 7, from which x’s will come (you can also think of it as the number of
permutations of xxxyyyy):

7!
3!4! = (73) = (74)

Thus, in general, in (x+y)​n​ the coefficient of x​k​y​n-k​ is (nk) .

We are now ready to formulate the ​Binomial Theorem​: for n=0,1,2,…,

n n n n n
(x+y)​n​ = (0) x​n​ + (1) x​n-1​y + (2) x​n-2​y​2​ +….+ (n−1) xy​n-1​+ (n) y​n

For example, (x+y)​6​ = (60) x​6​+ (61) x​5​y+ (62) x​4​y​2​+ (63) x​3​y​3​+ (64) x​2​y​4​+ (65) xy​5​+ (66) y​6​ =
= x​6​+ 6 x​5​y+ 15x​4​y​2​+ 20x​3​y​3​+ 15x​2​y​4​+ 6xy​5​+ 1y​6

Another example: what is the coefficient of x​2​y​3​ in the expansion of (x-2y)​5​:

(52) 1​2​(-2)​3
Don’t forget to raise the coefficients on the x and y (here, 1 and -2, respectively) to the
appropriate powers.

Pascal’s triangle:

There’s another way to obtain binomial coefficients, namely, by using Pascal’s Triangle:

1
1 1
1 2 1
1 3 3 1
1 4 6 4 1
1 5 10 10 5 1
1 6 15 20 15 6 1

An entry in the triangle is obtained by summing the two entries above. Note that the
entries in a given row of the triangle, say, the n=4 row 1,4,6,4,1, constitute the
coefficients in the expansion of (x+y)​4​. So in principle you could get all of the
coefficients for a given power of a binomial from the Pascal’s triangle, though in practice
it can get pretty laborious: to general coefficients for (x+y)​25​ you have to generate the
first 25 rows of the triangle! Better to use the binomial theorem in that case.

In general, the kth number in row n of the Pascal’s triangle is (nk) (​ note that both k and n
start count at 0).

Why does Pascal’s triangle work the way it does? The basic building block of the
triangle is the relationship between an entry and its two neighbors from the preceding
row, that is, the following identity:
(1) (nk) = (n−1 n−1
k ) + (k−1 )

We would like to give a combinatorial proof of this identity. A combinatorial proof is

giving a counting argument; in fact, it is giving two different counting procedures (one for
left-hand side (LHS) and one for right-hand side (RHS) of the equality) for counting the
same thing. While you are thinking of such a proof for the above identity in (1), let’s
review combinatorial proofs for even simpler and more familiar identities:

(2)​ (nk) = (n−k

n
) and (3) k (nk) = n (k−1
n−1
)

Spend a minute or two coming up with counting arguments for (2) and (3). …… Done?

Now check your work:

To prove identity in (2), which is reflected in the symmetry of the Pascal’s triangle, think
of what the LHS might be counting. Consider a binary string of length n with exactly k
0s. Then the LHS counts the number of such strings but counting the number of ways to
choose k spots out of n to place 0s in. On the other hand, you could count the number
of such strings by choosing spots to place 1s, namely, n-k spots out of n places, which
is the RHS. This completes the proof.

As to the identity in (3), the LHS counts the number of committees of k people chosen
from n people and then a president selected from amongst k people on the committee.
The RHS counts the same thing but in different order: first we select one person from n
people to serve as the president, and then reelect the remaining k-1 people from the
remaining n-1 people to complete the committee. Note that this argument can be
extended to prove a more general identity similar to (3). Think of the proof to (4) below
as an exercise:

(4) (nk) (m
k
) = (mn ) (n−m
k−m)

Now let’s get back to the identity in (1), which is also known as Pascal’s identity. I hope
you gave it a good thought before reading the proof about to follow:

The LHS is easy; we are counting the number of k-people committees chosen from n
people. (When coming up with combinatorial proofs of identities, it’s always helpful to
start with the simpler side, which gives you an idea of what you’re counting. Then you
need to think of different ways of counting this thing that is reflected in the other side of
the identity).
The RHS also counts the number of k-people committees from n people, but in a
particular way. Let’s designate one of the n people as special (say, it’s the only
left-hander in our class). So some committees of k people will have the special person
on the committees and some committees will not have the special person on them. In
fact, all committees of k people fall in either of these two categories, with the special
person on the committee or not on the committee. So if we count each type of
committee separately, we can take their sum to get the total number of k-people
committees.
n−1
The number of k-people committees with the special person on the committee is (k−1 ),
and the number of k-people committees with the special person not on the committee is
n
(k−1) . By summing the two numbers we obtain the RHS of the identity in (1), and the
proof is complete.

There are many interesting identities involving binomial coefficients (it is a major area of
combinatorics). I will list some here and I encourage you to think of combinatorial proofs
for them. There are also several identities to prove on the homework. The proofs of the
more basic identities (like the ones in 1-4 above) can appear on the quizzes/exams. The
more complicated ones can appear as an extra credit problem on the exams.

(5) If you alternate adding and subtracting the entries along the row of the Pascal’s
triangle, you get 0. Here’s an example for n=5: 1-4+6-4+1=0.
You can use the binomial theorem to prove this property in general by letting x=1 and
y=-1 in (x+y)​n​. Do it!

(6) If we add the numbers in a row of the Pascal’s triangle, what happens? Sum the
entries in several rows; do you see a pattern?
1
1+1=2
1+2+1=4
1+3+3+1=8
1+4+6+4+1=16

I hope you noticed that these are powers of 2. In general, summing up the entries of a
row n gives us the following identity:
(n0) + (n1) + (n2) +...+ (nn) = 2​n

Think of the proof of this identity (google is not your friend here; try to think of an
argument yourself). Note that the 2​n​ counts the number of subsets of a set with n
elements. Alternatively, it also counts the number of binary strings of length n. Now try
to count either of these objects in a different way so the other side of the identity makes
sense.

(7) Summing k entries along the diagonal of the Pascal’s triangle equals the k+1 entry
on the subsequent row. As an example, in the picture below the red entries along the
diagonal add up to the blue entry on the following row:

(nk) = (k−1
n−1 n−2
) + (k−1 n−3
) + (k−1 k−1
) +...+ (k−1 )

1
1 1
1 2 1
1 3 3 1
1 4 6 4 1
1 5 10 10 5 1
1 6 15 20 15 6 1

(8) Look at the row of the triangle and just join the numbers together: 1, 11, 121, 1331,
14641…. Do you see a pattern? These are powers of 1​0​: 11​1​, 11​2​, 11​3​, 11​4​, 11​5 ​and so
on. For example,

14641=1x10​4​+4x10​3​+6x10​2​+4x10​1​+1x10​0

n n n n
In general, 11​n​ = ( k) 10​n​+ ( k) 10​n-1​+...+ ( k) 10​1​+ ( k) 10​0

Think of the LHS as forming strings of length n with an alphabet with 11 letters. You are
welcome to think how the RHS counts such strings. Another way to prove the identity is
by using the binomial theorem: how would you do that?

================================

Multinomial Coefficients:
We can generalize binomial coefficients to consider questions of the following kind:

What is the coefficient of x​3​y​2​z​3​ in (x+y+z)​8​?

The answer is the number of permutations of xxxyyzzz, which can be counted in two
ways:
8!
(i) 3!2!3! permuting a string of length 8 with 3 x’s, 2 y’s, 3 z’s, or

(ii) (38) (25) (33)

Choose 3 places for x, then choose 2 places (out of remaining 5) for y, then choose 3
places (out of remaining 3) for z.

8
We can denote the above expression in short as (3,2,3).
In general, with n​1​+n​2​+…+n​k​=n, the multinomial coefficient can be represented as
n
(n1,n2,n3,...,nk )