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Pascal’s Triangle and Binomial Expansion Simplified Revision Notes

Revision notes with simplified explanations to understand Pascal’s Triangle and Binomial Expansion quickly and effectively.

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Pascal's Triangle and Binomial Expansion

Pascal's Triangle is a triangular arrangement of numbers where:

  • Each row begins and ends with the number one.
  • Every other number in the row is the sum of the two numbers directly above it from the previous row.

It is used to:

  • Find the coefficients in binomial expansion.
  • Solve probability problems using combinations.
  • Explore number patterns.

image

Each row corresponds to the coefficients in the expansion of a binomial expression (a+b)n(a+b)^n. For example :

  • (a+b)0=1(a+b)^0=1
  • (a+b)1=a+b(a+b)^1=a+b
  • (a+b)2=a2+2ab+b2(a+b)^2=a^2+2ab+b^2

For higher powers, there comes a point where multiplying out the expression becomes too tedious, so we can use binomial expansion.

Binomial expansion is a way of writing out expressions without multiplying them out in full step-by-step.

We get a desired coefficient using the formula :

image

Example

infoNote

In the expansion of (p+q)7(p+q)^7, what is the term with q5q^5.

Any coefficient can be found by taking (nr)xnryr\binom{n}{r}x^{n-r}y^r where 0rn0\le r \le n where every pair of powers must add up to nn.

q5q^5 means that pp must have a power (rr) of 22 since 5+2=75+2=7.

So there term is : (75)p2q5=:success[21p2q5]\binom{7}{5}p^2q^5=:success[21p^2q^5].

Example

infoNote

Find the sixth term in (2x+y)8(2x+y)^8

The sixth term corresponds to r=5r=5 (since rr starts at 00 ).

So the term is (85)2x85y5=56(8x3)(y3)=:success[448x3y5]\binom{8}{5}2x^{8-5}y^5=56(8x^3)(y^3)=:success[448x^3y^5]

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