Binomial Expansion

Last modified: 12th October 2023 A. Rasti

Chapter Overview

1:: Pascal’s Triangle

1 2:: Factorial Notation
1 1 Given that , find the value of .
1 2 1
1 3 3 1

4:: Using expansions for estimation

3:: Binomial Expansion Use your expansion to estimate the
Find the first 4 terms in the value of to 5 decimal places.
binomial expansion of , giving
terms in ascending powers of .
Starter

a) Expand ?
b) Expand ?
c) Expand ?
d) Expand ?
e) Expand ?

What do you notice about:

The coefficients: They follow Pascal’s triangle?(we’ll explore on next slide).

The powers of and : Power of decreases each time (starting at the power)
Power of increases each time ? (starting at 0)
More on Pascal’s Triangle
The second number of
each row tells us what In Pascal’s Triangle, each term
row we should use for an (except for the 1s) is the sum of
expansion. 1 the two terms above.
So if we were expanding ,
the power is 4, so we use
1 1
this row. Fro Tip: I highly recommend
1 2 1 memorising each row up to
what you see here.

1 3 3 1
1 4 6 4 1
1 5 10 10 1 1

We’ll see later WHY each row gives us the

coefficients in an expansion of
 Example
Next have descending or
Find the expansion of ascending powers of one of
the terms, going between 0
and 4 (note that if the power

1
4 is 0, the term is 1, so we need
( 2+3 𝑥 ) =¿ not write it).

First fill in the correct

row of Pascal’s triangle. And do the same with
the second term but
with powers going the
opposite way, noting
Simplify each term (ensuring any again that the ‘power of
number in a bracket is raised to 0’ term does not appear.
the appropriate power)
2 3 4
¿ 16 +96 𝑥 +216 𝑥 + 216 𝑥 + 81 𝑥
Fro Tip: Initially write one line per term for your expansion (before you simplify at the end), as we
have done above. There will be less faffing trying to ensure you have enough space for each term.
 Another Example
is the same as , so we expand as before, but use for the
second term.

3
( 1 − 2 𝑥 ) =¿

2 3
¿ 1 −6 𝑥 +12 𝑥 − 8 𝑥

Fro Tip: If one of the terms in the original bracket is negative, the terms in your expansion will
oscillate between positive and negative. If they don’t (e.g. two consecutive negatives), you’ve done
something wrong!
Getting a single term in the expansion

The coefficient of in the expansion of is 720. Find the

possible value(s) of the constant .

The ‘5’ row in Pascal’s triangle is 1 5 10 10 5 1. If we count the 1 as the ‘0 th term’,

we want the 2nd term, which is 10.

Since we want the term:

• The power of must be 2. ?
?
• The power of 2 must be 3 (the two powers must add up to 5).

Therefore term is:

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Test Your Understanding
Edexcel C2

?
Exercise 8A
Pearson Pure Mathematics Year 1/AS
Pages 160-161

Extension

1 [MAT 2009 1J]

The number of pairs of positive integers which solve the equation:

is:
A) 0
B)
C)
D)

The LHS is the binomial expansion of , therefore:

In order for to be a positive integer, can be between 1 and . The answer is

C. ?
Factorial and Choose Function
!
said “ factorial”, is the number of ways of arranging objects in a line.

For example, suppose you had three letters, A, B and C, and wanted to arrange
them in a line to form a ‘word’, e.g. ACB or BAC.
• There are 3 choices for the first letter.
• There are then 2 choices left for the second letter.
• There is then only 1 choice left for the last letter.

There are therefore possible combinations.

Your calculator can calculate a factorial using the button.

!
said “ choose ”, is the number of ways of ‘choosing’ things from , such that
the order in our selection does not matter.
These are also known as binomial coefficients.

For example, if you a football team captain and need to choose 4 people from amongst
10 in your class, there are possible selections.
(Note: the notation is preferable to )
Use the button on your calculator (your calculator input should display “10C4”)
?

Why do rows of Pascal’s Triangle give us the coefficients in a Binomial Expansion?

One possible selection of terms

from each bracket.

Consider:
Each term of the expansion involves picking one term from each bracket.
How many times will appear in the expansion?
To get we must have chosen 3 ’s from the 5 brackets (the rest ’s). That’s
ways, giving us in the expansion of .
?
Why do we care?
If the power in the binomial expansion is large, e.g. , it is no longer practical to go this far
down Pascal’s triangle. We can instead use the choose function to get numbers from
anywhere within the triangle. We’ll practise doing this after the next exercise.

1 0th row
( ) 0
0
1 1 1st row
( 0 ) (1 )
1 1

1 2 1
Notice: The top number matches the row 2nd row
( 0 ) (1 ) (2 )
2 2 2
number. The bottom number goes from 0

1 3 3 1
and eventually matches the top number. It’s
easy to see from the symmetry of Pascal’s
Triangle that for example.
3rd row
( 0 ) ( 1) ( 2) ( 3 )
3 3 3 3

( 0) ( 1) ( 2) ( 3) ( 4)
4 4 4 4 4
1 4 6 4 1

Textbook Note: The textbook refers to the top row as the “1st row” and the first number in each row as the “1st
entry”. This might sound sensible, but is against accepted practice: It makes much more sense that the row number
matches the number at the top of the binomial coefficient, and the entry number matches the bottom number.
We therefore call the top row the “0th row” and the first entry of each row the “0th entry”.
So the th entry of the th row of Pascal’s Triangle is therefore a nice clean , not as suggested by the textbook.
Extra Cool Stuff
( ) 0
0
(You are not required to know this, but it is helpful for STEP)

( 0 ) (1 )
1 1 We earlier saw that each entry of
Pascal’s Triangle is the sum of the
two above it. Thus for example:
( 0 ) (1 ) (2 )
2 2 2

( 0 ) ( 1) ( 2) ( 3 )
3 3 3 3
More generally:

( 0) ( 1) ( 2) ( 3) ( 4)
4 4 4 4 4
This is known as Pascal’s Rule.

Informal proof of Pascal’s Rule:

Suppose I have items and I have to choose of them. Clearly there’s possible selections. But
we could also find the number of selections by considering the first item of the available:
• It might be chosen. If so, we have items left to choose from amongst the remaining. That’s
possible selections.
• Otherwise it is not chosen. We still have items to choose, from amongst the remaining
items. That’s possible selections.
Thus in total there are possible selections.
Using Binomial Coefficients to Expand
In the previous section we learnt about the ‘choose’ function and how this
related to Pascal’s Triangle.
1 5 10 10 5 1

Why do rows of Pascal’s Triangle give us the coefficients in a Binomial Expansion?

One possible selection of terms

from each bracket.

Consider:
Each term of the expansion involves picking one term from each bracket.
How many times will appear in the expansion?
To get we must have chosen 3 ’s from the 5 brackets (the rest ’s). That’s
ways, giving us in the expansion of ?
.
Binomial Coefficients

Last modified: 12th October 2023 A. Rasti

6.2 Binomial coefficients

+...+
Statrter
a ?
Calculate the value b
of the following. You ?
. Accept this for the moment, but all will be explained in part
may use the factorial c (e).
button, but not the
?
Conceptually, there is clearly 20 ways to choose 1 thing from
nCr button. d 20. But using the formula:
! for all .
a) ?
We’d expect there to be 1 way to choose no things (since ‘no
b) selection’ is itself a possibility we should count).
c) e Using the formula:
This provides justification for letting . !
d)
e)
?
 for all .
f) . This is the same as above. In general, where the bottom
f number is above half of the top, we can subtract it from the
g)
top, i.e. . ?
g
?
 6.2 Binomial coefficients

2 3 4
25 − 1000 𝑥 +600 𝑥 −160 𝑥 +16 𝑥
Using Binomial Coefficients to Expand
is the set of natural numbers, i.e. positive integers. This formula is only valid for
positive integers . In Year 2 you will see how to deal with fractional/negative .

! The binomial expansion, when :

Find the first 4 terms in the expansion of , in ascending powers of .

This is exactly the same

10
( 1+3 𝑥 ) =¿ method as before, except
we’ve just had to calculate
the Binomial coefficients
ourselves rather than read
them off Pascal’s Triangle.
?
2 3
¿ 1+30 𝑥 + 405 𝑥 +3240 𝑥 +…
Test Your Understanding
Find the first 3 terms in the expansion of , in ascending powers of .

( ) ()
7
1 7 ( 7)
Fro Note: The “ indicates that there
would have been other terms in the

2− 𝑥 = 2
expansion.
?

3 0
Getting a single term in the expansion
In the expansion of the general term is given by

Expression Power of in term Term in expansion

wanted.

(𝑎+𝑥 ) 10
3 (
10
3 ) 3 Note: The two
𝑎 𝑥 ?powers add up to 10.
7

( 2 𝑥 −1 ) 75
50 (75
50 ) ( −1) ? ( 2 𝑥 )
25 50

(3 − 𝑥 ) 12
7 (12
7 ) ( 3 ) (?− 𝑥 )
5 7

( 3 𝑥+ 4 )16 3 (16
3 ) ( 4 ) ?( 3 𝑥 )
13 3
6.2 Checking Activity

𝑛
𝑥
When (1 − ) is expand in ascending powers of x, the coefficient of
3
is 4.Given that n is the positive integer, find the value of n.

Term in =

=4

𝑛 =9
 6.2 Checking Activity
9
5
Find the term independent of x in the expansion of (𝑥− 2 )
𝑥

The term that is independent of x is the term that when simplified does not involve x

=10500
6.2 Checking Activity

(i) Find the first three terms in the expansion, in ascending powers of x, of
C
A

(ii) Given that the coefficient of in the expansion of is 12, find the value of the constant a.

2
 6.2 Checking Activity

(i) Find the first three terms in the expansion, in ascending powers of x, of
C
A

(ii) Given that the

C coefficient of in the expansion of is 12, find the value of the constant a.
Maximum points
A

( 1 − 2 𝑥 ) 5 =1 − 10 𝑥 + 40 𝑥2
2 5 2 2
(1+𝑎𝑥+2𝑥 )( 1−2 𝑥¿ )40
=(1+𝑎𝑥+2𝑥 )(1−10
2 𝑥+40
𝑥 −10 𝑎 𝑥 +2 𝑥 + …
𝑥 ) 2 2

+1
( 40 − 10 𝑎 +2 )=12
+1
𝑎= 3
+1
 Exercise 8C
Pearson Pure Mathematics Year 1/AS
Page 164

Extension
[AEA 2013 Q1a] In the binomial expansion of the Hint: Remember that
1
coefficients of and are equal and non-zero.
Find the possible values of . Can you similarly simplify
using ?

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Froflection: This means that
2 [STEP I 2010 Q5a] By considering the expansion of , where the sum of each row in Pascal’s
is a positive integer, or otherwise, show that: Triangle gives successive
powers of 2. Safe!

Letting gives the desired result.

?
Getting a single term in the expansion

The coefficient of in the expansion of is 3360. Find the

possible value(s) of the constant .

Term is:
?
Therefore:

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Test Your Understanding
In the expansion of , where is a non-zero constant the
coefficient of is double the coefficient of . Find the value of .

term:
term:

But is non-zero, so
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 Exercise 8D
Pearson Pure Mathematics Year 1/AS
Pages 166-167

Extension 2 [STEP I 2013 Q6] By considering the

coefficient of in the series for , or
1 [MAT 2014 1G] Let be a positive integer. otherwise, obtain the following relation
The coefficient of in the expansion of between binomial coefficients:
equals:
A) Noting that , the term is .
B) But the term could be obtained either by 1
C) in the first bracket multiplied by term in the
D) second, giving , or the in the first bracket
E) multiplied by the term in the second, . Thus
Try to imagine brackets written out. To get , we comparing coefficients:
must have chosen from 3 brackets, from one and 1
from the remaining brackets. That’s choices for the
term, and choices for the term. ?
Using the definition of the choose function, you can
show that
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Estimating Powers
Edexcel C2 Jan 2012 Q3

Fro Tip: Use

your calculator
to compare
against the
exact value of .

a b Comparing to , then:

( ) ()
8
𝑥 8 ( 8)
Using our expansion with :

1+ = 1
Why should this be a reasonably good approximation of
despite the missing terms in the expansion?
becomes increasingly small when as the power
? ?
increases. Thus the terms and beyond will be

4 0
negligibly small.

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Test Your Understanding
Edexcel C2 Jan 2008 Q3

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Exit Ticket
Homework
Thanks