Question

Binomial Expansion/Pascal's triangle. Please help with all of number 5.

Answer 1

$\begin{matrix}1\\1&1\\1&2&1\\1&3&3&1\\1&4&6&4&1\end{bmatrix}$

The rows add up to $1,2,4,8,16$, respectively. (Notice they're all powers of 2)

The sum of the numbers in row $n$ is $2^{n-1}$.

The last problem can be solved with the binomial theorem, but I'll assume you don't take that for granted. You can prove this claim by induction. When $n=1$,

$(1+x)^1=1+x=\dbinom10+\dbinom11x$

so the base case holds. Assume the claim holds for $n=k$, so that

$(1+x)^k=\dbinom k0+\dbinom k1x+\cdots+\dbinom k{k-1}x^{k-1}+\dbinom kkx^k$

Use this to show that it holds for $n=k+1$.

$(1+x)^{k+1}=(1+x)(1+x)^k$
$(1+x)^{k+1}=(1+x)\left(\dbinom k0+\dbinom k1x+\cdots+\dbinom k{k-1}x^{k-1}+\dbinom kkx^k\right)$
$(1+x)^{k+1}=1+\left(\dbinom k0+\dbinom k1\right)x+\left(\dbinom k1+\dbinom k2\right)x^2+\cdots+\left(\dbinom k{k-2}+\dbinom k{k-1}\right)x^{k-1}+\left(\dbinom k{k-1}+\dbinom kk\right)x^k+x^{k+1}$

Notice that

$\dbinom k\ell+\dbinom k{\ell+1}=\dfrac{k!}{\ell!(k-\ell)!}+\dfrac{k!}{(\ell+1)!(k-\ell-1)!}$
$\dbinom k\ell+\dbinom k{\ell+1}=\dfrac{k!(\ell+1)}{(\ell+1)!(k-\ell)!}+\dfrac{k!(k-\ell)}{(\ell+1)!(k-\ell)!}$
$\dbinom k\ell+\dbinom k{\ell+1}=\dfrac{k!(\ell+1)+k!(k-\ell)}{(\ell+1)!(k-\ell)!}$
$\dbinom k\ell+\dbinom k{\ell+1}=\dfrac{k!(k+1)}{(\ell+1)!(k-\ell)!}$
$\dbinom k\ell+\dbinom k{\ell+1}=\dfrac{(k+1)!}{(\ell+1)!((k+1)-(\ell+1))!}$
$\dbinom k\ell+\dbinom k{\ell+1}=\dbinom{k+1}{\ell+1}$

So you can write the expansion for $n=k+1$ as

$(1+x)^{k+1}=1+\dbinom{k+1}1x+\dbinom{k+1}2x^2+\cdots+\dbinom{k+1}{k-1}x^{k-1}+\dbinom{k+1}kx^k+x^{k+1}$

and since $\dbinom{k+1}0=\dbinom{k+1}{k+1}=1$, you have

$(1+x)^{k+1}=\dbinom{k+1}0+\dbinom{k+1}1x+\cdots+\dbinom{k+1}kx^k+\dbinom{k+1}{k+1}x^{k+1}$

and so the claim holds for $n=k+1$, thus proving the claim overall that

$(1+x)^n=\dbinom n0+\dbinom n1x+\cdots+\dbinom n{n-1}x^{n-1}+\dbinom nnx^n$

Setting $x=1$ gives

$(1+1)^n=\dbinom n0+\dbinom n1+\cdots+\dbinom n{n-1}+\dbinom nn=2^n$

which agrees with the result obtained for part (c).