The Secrets Hidden

in Pascal’s Triangle

Nadia Abdelal
nadia.abdelal@amsi.org.au
 Blaise Pascal

• 17th Century mathematician and physicist.

• Laid the foundation for the modern theory of
probabilities.
• Was also a dedicated theologian and religious
philosopher.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Blaise-Pascal
 History of Pascal’s Triangle
• Initially discovered independently by both the Persians and the Chinese
during the 11th century.
• The earliest display of Pascal’s Triangle was demonstrated in the 13th
Century by Chinese Mathematician Yang Hui.

Yang Hui’s Triangle Al-Karaji Triangle

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pascals-triangle https://alchetron.com/Al-Karaji
 Construction of Pascal’s Triangle
• Originally used by Pascal to solve problems in Probability
Theory.
• Predominantly used with the Binomial Expansion Theorem
and Combinatorics.

http://pages.csam.montclair.edu/~kazimir/construction.html
 Pascals Triangle
k=0
Formula for generating each cell: n=0
k=0 k=1
n=1
𝑛𝑛 𝑛𝑛 − 1 𝑛𝑛 − 1
= + n=2
k=0 k=1 k=2
𝑘𝑘 𝑘𝑘 − 1 𝑘𝑘
n=3
n=4
n=5
n=6
Another way to look at Pascals Triangle
n=0

n=1
n=2 Combinatorics
n=3
n=4
n=5
n=6
 Pascals Triangle
Activity 1: Find the following patterns:
- The Natural Numbers
1, 2, 3, 4, …
- The Powers of 2
2, 4, 8, 16, …
- The Powers of 11
11, 121, 1331, 14641, …
- The Triangular Numbers
1, 3, 6, 10, …
- The Tetrahedral Numbers
1, 4, 10, 20, …
- The Hexagonal Numbers
1, 6, 15, 28, …
- The Catalan Numbers
1, 2, 5, 14, 42, …
- The Fibonacci Sequence
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 11, …
Natural Numbers
Powers of 2 n=0 20 = 1
2n n=1 21 = 2
Add each row n=2 22 = 4

n=3 23 = 8

n=4 24 = 16
n=5 25 = 32

n=6 26 = 64

n=7 27 = 128

n=8 28 = 256

n=9 29 = 512

n = 10 210 = 1024
n = 11 211 = 2048
Powers of 11 n=0 110 = 1
11n n=1 111 = 11
Each row n=2 112 = 121
represents the
n=3 113 = 1331
place value
n=4 114 = 14641
n=5 115 = 161051

n=6 116 = 1771561

n=7

n=8

n=9

n = 10

n = 11
Triangular Numbers
Handshakes: https://nrich.maths.org/6708
Mystic Rose: https://nrich.maths.org/6703
Tetrahedral Numbers
The sum of consecutive triangular
numbers
12 Days of Christmas:
https://www.intmath.com/blog/mathematics/the-twelve-
days-of-christmas-how-many-presents-1686

http://www.numbersaplenty.com/set/tetrahedral_number/
 Hexagonal Numbers

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-formula-for-hexagonal-numbers
 Catalan numbers
The number of ways a fixed polygon can be
divided into triangles 2–1=1

6–4=2

20 – 15 = 5

14

42

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/PolygonDiagonal.html
http://mathforum.org/advanced/robertd/catalan.html
 Fibonacci Numbers
Fabulous Fibonacci and his nifty numbers
http://www.mensaforkids.org/MFK2/assets/File/Teach/Less
onPlans/Lesson_Fibonacci.pdf 1

1+1=2

1+2=3

1+3+1=5

1+4+3=8

1 + 5 + 6 + 1 = 13

1 + 6 + 10 + 4 = 21

34

55
 More Patterns

• Can you find the square

numbers?
• Can you find the hockey
stick pattern?
Pascals Triangle

Can you come up

with your own
pattern??
 Pascal’s Petals

Activity 2

• Shade the number 15. This is your centre

number.
• Starting with the petal above and to the
left of the red centre, colour all alternating
petals the same shade.
• Colour the three remaining petals a 5 10
different shade.
6 15 20

Can you find any patterns here? 21 35

 Pascal’s Petals
- Calculate the product of the yellow petals.
- Calculate the product of the pink petals.
What do you notice?
⁻ What is the Prime Factorisation of each of
the yellow petals?
⁻ What is the prime factorisation of each of
the pink petals?
What do you notice?

Does this work for every number?

 Fractals
• Fractals are infinitely complex patterns that are self-similar across different scales.
• They are created by repeating a simple process over and over in an ongoing
feedback loop.

Well known Fractals

Mandelbrot Set Barnsley’s Fern

Fractal geometry is seen everywhere in the natural world, but more recently in
Computer Generated Imaging (CGI), population statistics, seismology, medical
studies and more.
 Pascal and Sierpinski
Sierpinski’s Triangle or Sierpinski’s Gasket/Sieve is another famous fractal
developed in 1915 by Waclaw Sierpinski.

We can use Pascal’s Triangle to recreate the

Sierpinski’s fractal.
 Pascal and Sierpinski
Activity 3: Colouring in Sierpinski
On the Pascal Triangle provided, colour all even numbers black.

For more fun with fractals check out The Chaos Game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbKtFN71Lfs
http://thewessens.net/ClassroomApps/Main/chaosgame.html?topic=geometry&
id=15
 Sierpinski Patterns in Excel
* See handout for instructions
 Background information
Modular Arithmetic Colouring
Modular Arithmetic
If a is an integer and b is a positive integer then a mod b is the remainder obtained when
we divide a by b (a ÷ b).
e.g. “5 mod 3 = 2” because 2 is the remainder when we divide 5 by 3
∴ - All numbers that are divisible by 3 can be written “0 mod 3”
- Numbers that have a remainder of 1 when divided by 3 can be written “1 mod 3”.
- Numbers that have a remainder of 2 when divided by 3 can be written “2 mod 3”.
0 0
11 1
10 2

9 3

2 1 8 4
7 5
6
Modular 3 Modular 12
 The Sierpinski Triangle
Divisibility Colouring
Activity 4: Divisibility Colouring
On the Pascal Triangle provided, perform the following steps:
1. Colour numbers that are divisible by 3 with a remainder of 0 Red
2. Colour numbers that are divisible by 3 with a remainder of 1 Blue
3. Colour numbers that are divisible by 3 with a remainder of 2 Green

Activity 4: Mod-3 Colouring

On the Pascal Triangle provided, perform the following steps:
1. Colour all 0 mod 3 numbers Red
2. Colour all 1 mod 3 numbers Blue
3. Colour all 2 mod 3 numbers Green
 Sierpinski Patterns in Excel
Mod 3 Colouring using excel – See handout

https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/technologies/digital-technologies/
 Sierpinski Fractal Crochet
The following websites contain patterns for creating your own Sierpinski
fractal crochet:
http://www.marypat.org/stuff/nylife/020325.html
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/crochet-sierpinski-fractal-triangle
Binomial Theorem and Probability

look at the binomial theorem for probability.

𝑛𝑛
𝑥𝑥 + 𝑎𝑎 𝑛𝑛
= ∑𝑛𝑛𝑘𝑘=0 𝑘𝑘
𝑥𝑥 𝑘𝑘 𝑎𝑎𝑛𝑛−𝑘𝑘

We then use the combinatorics formula to work out the co-efficients:

𝑛𝑛 𝑛𝑛!
𝑘𝑘
=
𝑘𝑘! 𝑛𝑛−𝑘𝑘 !

And substitute probabilities of each event in to work out the probabilities

of independent events.
 Binomial Theorem and Probability
A couple wants to have 4 children and would like 2 boys and 2 girls. What is
the probability of this occurring?
𝑛𝑛
𝑛𝑛
𝑛𝑛 𝑘𝑘 𝑛𝑛−𝑘𝑘
𝑥𝑥 + 𝑎𝑎 =� 𝑥𝑥 𝑎𝑎
𝑘𝑘
𝑘𝑘=0

(r + b)4 = 4 𝑟𝑟 4 𝑏𝑏0 + 4 𝑟𝑟 3 𝑏𝑏1 + 4 𝑟𝑟 2 𝑏𝑏2 + 4 𝑟𝑟1 𝑏𝑏3 + 4 𝑟𝑟 0 𝑏𝑏4

0 1 2 3 4

𝑛𝑛 𝑛𝑛! 24.3.2.1
Now using,
𝑘𝑘
= = =6
𝑘𝑘! 𝑛𝑛−𝑘𝑘 ! 2.1.2.1

We get: (r + b)4 = 1𝑟𝑟 4 𝑏𝑏0 + 4𝑟𝑟 3 𝑏𝑏1 + 6𝑟𝑟 2 𝑏𝑏2 + 4𝑟𝑟1 𝑏𝑏3 + 1𝑟𝑟 0 𝑏𝑏4

𝟔𝟔
Pr(2 boys and 2 girls) = or 37.5%
𝟏𝟏𝟏𝟏
Binomial Theorem and Probability

(r + b)4 = 1𝑟𝑟 4 𝑏𝑏 0 + 4𝑟𝑟 3 𝑏𝑏1 + 6𝑟𝑟 2 𝑏𝑏 2 + 4𝑟𝑟1 𝑏𝑏 3 + 1𝑟𝑟 0 𝑏𝑏 4

n=0

n=1
n=2

n=3

n=4
Binomial Theorem and Probability

Activity 6: Antonio’s Pizza Palace

http://mathforum.org/workshops/usi/pascal/pizza_pascal.html

• It's Friday night and the Pizza Palace is more crowded than
usual. At the counter the Pascalini's are trying to order a large
pizza, but can't agree on what topping(s) to select.
• Antonio, behind the counter, says, "I only have 8 different
toppings. It can't be that hard to make up your mind. How many
different pizzas could that be?"