Binomial expansions

Geometric sequences
Contents

Geometric series
The sum to infinity of a geometric series
Binomial expansions
Examination-style questions

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Pascals Triangle

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Binomial expansions

An expression containing two terms, for example a + b, is called

a binomial expression.
When we find powers of binomial expressions an interesting
pattern emerges.
(a + b)0 = 1
(a + b)1 = 1a + 1b
(a + b)2 = 1a2 + 2ab + 1b2
(a + b)3 = 1a3 + 3a2b + 3ab2 + 1b3
(a + b)4 = 1a4 + 4a3b + 6a2b2 + 4ab3 + 1b4
(a + b)5 = 1a5 + 5a4b + 10a3b2 + 10a2b3 + 5ab4 + 1b5

What patterns do you notice?

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Binomial expansions

In general, in the expansion of (a + b)n:

The coefficients are given by the (n + 1)th row of Pascals
triangle.
The sum of the powers of a and b is n for each term.
Altogether, there are n + 1 terms in the expansion.
As long as n is relatively small, we can expand a given binomial
directly by comparing it to the equivalent expansion of (a + b)n.
For example:
Expand (x + 1)5.

Using (a + b)5 = a5 + 5a4b + 10a3b2 + 10a2b3 + 5ab4 + b5

and replacing a with x and b with 1 gives:
(x + 1)5 = x5 + 5x4 + 10x3 + 10x2 + 5x + 1
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Binomial expansions

Expand (2x y)4.

Using (a + b)4 = a4 + 4a3b + 6a2b2 + 4ab3 + b4

and replacing a with 2x and b with y gives:
(2x y)4 = (2x)4 + 4(2x)3(y) + 6(2x)2(y)2 + 4(2x)(y)3 + (y)4
= 16x4 32x3y + 24x2y2 8xy3 + y4
Notice that when the second term in a binomial is negative the
signs of the terms in the expansion will alternate.
Suppose we wanted to expand (a + b)20.
We could find the 21st row of Pascals triangle, but this would
take a very long time.

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Finding binomial coefficients

When n is large we can find the binomial coefficients using

combinations theory.
Lets look more closely at the expansion of
(a + b)4 = (a + b)(a + b)(a + b)(a + b)
Ways of Ways of Ways of Ways of Ways of
getting a4 getting a3b getting a2b2 getting ab3 getting b4
aaaa aaab aabb abbb bbbb
aaba abab babb
abaa abba bbab
baaa bbaa bbba
baba
baab
1 way 4 ways 6 ways 4 ways 1 way

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Finding binomial coefficients

The situation where no bs (or four as) are chosen from any
of the four brackets can be written as
4 4
4C
0or . This is the same as C4 or .
4
0 4
The situation where one b (or three as) can be chosen from
any of the four brackets can be written as:
4 4
4C or
1 1 . This is the same as 4C3 or 3 .

The situation where two bs (or two as) can be chosen from
any of the four brackets can be written as
4
4C
2 or .
2
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Finding binomial coefficients

The fifth row of Pascals triangle can be written as:

4 4 4 4 4
0 1 2 3 4

This corresponds to the values

1 4 6 4 1

The expansion of (a + b)4 can therefore be written as:

4 4 4 3 4 2 2 4 3 4 4
(a b) a a b a b ab b
4

0 1 2 3 4
Or: (a + b)4 = a4 + 4a3b + 6a2b2 + 4ab3 + b4

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Finding binomial coefficients

The number of ways to choose r objects from a group of

n objects is written as nCr and is given by
n n!
r = r! n r !

n! is read as n factorial and is the product of all the natural
numbers from 1 to n.
In general:

n! = n (n 1) (n 2) (n 3) 2 1

n can also be 0 and by definition 0! = 1.

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Finding binomial coefficients

The value of n! gets large very quickly as the value of n

increases. For example:
5! = 5 4 3 2 120
1=
12! = 12 11 10 2 479
1 = 001 600
20! = 20 19 18 2 21432
= 902 008 176 640 000

Fortunately, when we use the formula

n n!
r = r! n r !

to calculate binomial coefficients, many of the numbers cancel
out. For example, for 4C2 we have
2
4 4! 4 3 21 43
= =
2 2! 2! (21)(21) = =6
2 1
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Finding binomial coefficients

Here are some more examples:

8 8! 8 7 6 5 4 3 21 876
= = =
3 3! 5! (3 21)(5 4 3 21) 3 21 = 56

This value corresponds to the number of ways of choosing 3
as from the 8 brackets in the expansion of (a + b)8.
56 is therefore the coefficient of a3b5 in the expansion of (a + b)8.
4
9 9! 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21 98
= =
7 7! 2! (7 6 5 4 3 21)(21) = = 36
21
This value corresponds to the number of ways of choosing 7
as from the 9 brackets in the expansion of (a + b)9.
36 is therefore the coefficient of a7b2 in the expansion of (a + b)9.

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Finding binomial coefficients

The effect of this cancelling gives an alternative form for nCr.

n n ( n 1)( n 2)...( n r +1)
r =
r!
In general, the expansion of (a + b)n can be written as:

n n n n n 1 n n 2 2 n n
(a + b) = a + a b + a b +...+ b
0 1 2 n

A special case is the expansion of (1 + x)n

n n n 2 n 3
n
(1 + x ) = + x + x + x +... + x n
0 1 2 3
n( n 1) 2 n( n 1)( n 2) 3
= 1+ nx + x + x +... + x n
2! 3!
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Using the binomial theorem

This method of finding the binomial coefficients is called the

binomial theorem.

Find the coefficient of a7b3 in the

expansion of (a 2b)10.

The term in a7b3 is of the form:

3 4
10 7 10 9 8 7
3 a ( 2b )3
= a ( 8b 3
)
1 2 3
= 120(8a7b3)
= 960a7b3
So the coefficient of a7b3 in the expansion of (a 2b)10 is 960.

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Using the binomial theorem

Use the binomial theorem to write down the first four terms
in the expansion of (1 + x)7 in ascending powers of x.

7 7 7 7 2 7 3
(1+ x ) = + x + x + x +...
0 1 2 3
3
76 2 765 3
= 1+ 7 x + x + x +...
21 3 21

=1+ 7 x + 21x2 + 35 x3 +...

How could we use this expansion to find an

approximate value for 1.17?

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Using the binomial theorem

To find an approximate value for 1.17 we can let x = 0.1 in the

expansion
(1 + x)7 = 1 + 7x + 21x2 + 35x3 +
This gives us
1.17 1 + 7 0.1 +21 0.12 +35 0.13
As 0.1 is raised to ever higher powers it becomes much smaller
and so less significant.
We can therefore leave out higher powers of x and still have a
reasonable approximation.
1.17 1 + 0.7 + 0.21 + 0.035
1.945

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 Examination-style questions

Geometric sequences
Contents

Geometric series
The sum to infinity of a geometric series
Binomial expansions
Examination-style questions

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Examination-style question 2

a) Write down the first four terms in the expansion of (1 + ax)13

in ascending powers of x, where a > 0.
b) Given that in the expansion of (1 + ax)13 the coefficient of x is
b and the coefficient of x2 is 12b, find the value of a and b.
13 12 2 13 1211
a) (1 + ax)13 =1+13ax + ( ax ) + ( ax )3 + ...
2 32
= 1 + 13ax + 78a2x2 + 286a3x3 +
b) 13a = b 1
78a2 = 12b 2
78a2 = 12 13a
Substituting 1 into 2 : 78a = 156
a = 2
b = 26
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