MEI AS Mathematics: The binomial expansion

Section 1: Using the binomial expansion

Notes and Examples
These notes contain the following subsections:
Pascal’s triangle
Using Pascal’s triangle
Combinations
The formula for binomial coefficients
Binomial expansion using the formula
Approximations

Pascal’s triangle
A binomial is an expression with two terms, for example a + b or a − b . In this section you
will learn to multiply out expressions of the form (a + b) , where n is a positive integer –
n

this is called finding the binomial expansion of (a + b) .

n

When you expand brackets in the form (a + b) there is a pattern in the numerical
n

coefficients of a and b.
Look at these expansions:

(a + b)1 = 1a + 1b
( a + b) 2 = 1a 2 + 2ab + 1b 2
( a + b)3 = 1a3 + 3a 2b + 3ab 2 + 1b3
(a + b)4 = 1a 4 + 4a3b + 6a 2b 2 + 4ab3 + 1b 4

You can use the numerical coefficients to make Pascal’s triangle:

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Notes and examples page 1 of 10 integralmaths.org
 Each number in Pascal’s
triangle is found by adding
the two numbers above it.

The nth row of Pascal’s triangle gives the binomial coefficients in the expansion of (a + b) .
n

For example the 3rd row is 1, 3, 3, 1 so the binomial coefficients of the expansion (a + b)
3

are 1, 3, 3 and 1.

Using Pascal’s triangle

You can use Pascal’s triangle to help you expand an expression in the form (a + b) .
n

Step 1 Find the nth row Pascal’s triangle – this tells you the binomial coefficients

Remember: The first two numbers in the row are 1 and n, and the row has n + 1 numbers in it in total.

Step 2 Write down the terms in the expansion.

Multiply each term by its binomial coefficient.

Remember:
n
● The first term is a and the powers of a go down by 1 in each term, so the last
term has no a in it.
● The first term has no b in it and the powers of b go up by 1 in each term, so the last term is bn .
● There are n + 1 terms altogether.

Example 1

Expand ( p + q ) .
5

Solution

The row you need from Pascal’s triangle starts with 1, 5 and has 6 numbers in it.
So, the row is 1, 5, 10, 10, 5, 1.

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( p + q)5 = 1 p5q 0 + 5 p 4q1 + 10 p 3q 2 + 10 p 2q 3 + 5 p1q 4 + 1 p 0q 5
= p5 + 5 p 4q + 10 p3q 2 + 10 p 2q3 + 5 pq 4 + q5

Remember:
● The powers in each term add up to n.
● p1 = p and p 0 = 1 .

You expand (a + b) in the same way whether a and b are numbers or letters. If they are
n

numbers a little more work is involved as you need to work out the actual powers and
multiply by the binomial coefficients. This is shown in the next example.

Example 2

Expand ( x + 2) .
6

Solution
Using Pascal’s triangle, the binomial coefficients are 1, 6, 15, 20, 15, 6, 1.

( x + 2)6 = 1x 6 + 6 x5 (2) + 15 x 4 (2)2 + 20 x3 (2)3 + 15 x 2 (2)4 + 6 x(2)5 + 1(26 )

= x6 + 12 x5 + 60 x 4 + 160 x3 + 240 x 2 + 192 x + 64

When you the expression is in the form (a + b)n , remember that:

● even powers of a negative number are positive, for example (−2)4 = 16
● odd powers of a negative number are negative, for example (−2)3 = −8

Example 3

Expand (2 x − 3 y ) .
4

Solution
From Pascal’s triangle, the binomial coefficients are 1, 4, 6, 4, 1

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(2 x − 3 y)4 = (2 x) 4 + 4(2 x)3 (−3 y) + 6(2 x) 2 ( −3 y) 2 + 4(2 x)( −3 y)3 + ( −3 y) 4
= 16 x 4 + 4(8 x3 )(−3 y ) + 6(4 x 2 )(9 y 2 ) + 4(2 x)(−27 y 3 ) + 81y 4
= 16 x 4 − 96 x3 y + 216 x 2 y 2 − 216 xy 3 + 81y 4

Combinations
For large values of n, using Pascal’s triangle becomes complicated as you would need to
write out a lot of rows.
It is useful to think about what is happening when you are multiplying out.

Think about a fairly simple example: (a + b) .

4

In full, this is (a + b)(a + b)(a + b)(a + b) .

When you multiply out brackets like this, each term includes one term from each bracket.
So, for example, aaab, aaba, abaa and baaa are four of the terms. Each of them can be
3 3
written as a b , so these four terms can be written as 4a b .

For a more complicated example, such as (a + b) , suppose you want to find the
20

5 15 5 15
coefficient of a b . So you need to know how many times the term a b appears in the
expansion. The question you need to ask is ‘how many ways can I choose a from 5 of the
20 brackets? (For the brackets where you don’t choose a, you will have to choose b, so that
15
will give the b ).
It’s easier to think about this using a real-life context.
Imagine a class of 28 students, with 3 students to be chosen for the Student Union. How
many ways can the students be chosen?
There are 28 ways of picking the first student.
Once that student has been chosen, there are 27 ways of choosing the second, and then
26 ways of choosing the third.
This gives 28  27  26 = 19 656 .

However, this gives too many combinations. If Alice were chosen first, Brendan second and Chloe third, this
would be the same as if Chloe were chosen first, Alice second and Brendan third. In fact, there are 6 possible
ways that Alice, Brendan and Chloe could be chosen:
ABC ACB BAC BCA CAB CBA
This is the case for any combination of three students. So all of the 19 656 ways of choosing can be divided
up into groups of 6 for which the 6 ways are all the same.

28  27  26
So the number of distinct combinations is = 3276
6

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To generalise the problem above, you need to think about where the 6 comes from. You
needed to know how many ways Alice, Brendan and Chloe could be chosen – in other
words, in how many different orders can you write A, B and C?

You have three choices for the first letter, two for the second and one for the third. So the
number of ways is 3  2  1 = 6 , as expected.

A quick notation for writing 3  2  1 is to write 3! This is called factorial notation. In general,
n! = n  (n − 1)  (n − 2)  ...  2  1 .
The calculation for choosing 3 people from 28 can be written as
28  27  26
1 2  3
28  27  26  ( 25  24  ...  2  1)
This is equivalent to
1 2  3  ( 25  24  ...  2  1)
28!
which can be written as .
3!25!

You can generalise this to say that the number of ways of choosing r objects from n objects
n! n n
is given by . This is written either as n Cr or as Cr or as  r  , you say “n
r !(n − r )!  
choose r”.

The formula for binomial coefficients

You can now go back to the problem of expanding brackets.

r n−r
If you are expanding (a + b) , and you want to find the term that involves a b
n
, then you
need to choose the ‘a’ from r of the brackets and the ‘b’ from the rest of the brackets. So
the coefficient of this term is the number of ways you can choose r out of the n brackets.
This is the binomial coefficient and is given by n Cr .

n n!
As shown above, the definition of the binomial coefficient n Cr , or   , is .
r r !(n − r )!

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 n(n − 1)....(n − r + 1)
However, it is usually easier to use the form .
1 2  3  ...  r
This looks complicated in algebra but it is much easier when working with numbers. The
denominator is the product of the integers from 1 up to r, and the numerator is the product
of the integers from n down until you have r numbers altogether. So there must be an equal
number of integers in the numerator and the denominator.

If you have to work this out without a calculator, there will be a lot of cancelling you can do,
so the calculation usually ends up quite simple. The example below demonstrates working
out without a calculator.
Note that the binomial coefficients are symmetrical, so that n Cr = n Cn−r . So if you want to
work out 15 C12 , for example, you can work out 15 C3 instead, which is much easier.
Many calculators have a button for n Cr , but you should practise working these out without
a calculator, as shown in the example below, to familiarise yourself with the process.

Example 4
Find (a) 6 C3 (b) 10 C8 (c) 12 C4

Solution

6  5 4
(a) 6 C3 = = 20
1 2  3
(b)

By symmetry 10 C8 = 10 C2
Imagine you have 10 items, choosing 8 from them is the same as choosing the 2 items that you don’t want.

5
10  9
10 C8 = 10 C2 = = 45
1 2

12  11 5 10  9 3 and 4 cancel with 12,

(c) 12 C4 = and 2 cancels with 10
1 2  3  4 leaving 5.
= 11 5  9
= 495

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Binomial expansion using the formula
Although you can use Pascal’s triangle from tables for most of the expansions you are likely
to meet at this stage, there are times when you will have to use the formula for the binomial
coefficients. If the value of n is large, the table may not show the row that you need.

Later in your A level course you will learn to expand expressions involving a value of n that
is not a positive whole number, such as –3 or ½. For values of n like these, you cannot use
Pascal’s triangle to find the binomial coefficients, so you have to use the formula. The work
you are doing now is good preparation for this.

Example 5

In the expansion of ( 3 − 2x ) , find the coefficient of

8

(a) x2 (b) x5 (c) x7

Solution

The term in x is 8 C2  3  ( −2 x ) = 28  729  4 x

2 6 2 2
(a)

= 81 648x 2
2
The coefficient of x is 81 648.

The term in x is 8 C5  3  ( −2 x ) = 56  27  −32 x

5 3 5 5
(b)

= −48 384 x5
5
The coefficient of x is –48 384.

The term in x is 8 C7  3  ( −2 x ) = 8  3  −128 x

7 1 7 7
(c)

= −3072 x 7
7
The coefficient of x is –3072.

Example 6
15
 2 x2 
Find the term independent of x in the expansion of  −  .
 x 2 

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Solution

The term independent of x means the term where x cancels out – this is the constant term.

10 5
2  x 
2

   −  = 3003  2  ( − 2 ) = −96 096

10 1 5
15 C5 
 x  2 

10
1 1
Notice x cancels as you have    ( x ) = 10  x = 1 .
2 5 10

 x x

Example 7
The sum of the first three terms in ascending powers of x in the expansion of
12
 x  b 2
1 −   a +  is − 3 + cx . Find the value of each of a, b and c.
 4  x x

Solution
12
 x
First find the first three terms in the expansion of 1 −  .
 4
12 2
 x 11  x  x
1 −  = 1 + 12 C11  1   −  + 12 C10  1   −  + ...
12 10

 4  4  4
33x 2
= 1 − 3x + + ...
8
 b
Multiply these three terms by  a + .
 x
12
 x  b  33x 2  b
 1 −   a + =
  1 − 3 x + + ....  a + 
 4  x  8  x
33ax 2 b 33bx You don’t need the
= a − 3ax + + − 3b + + ... term so you can just
8 x 8 ignore it.
b  33b 
= + (a − 3b) +  − 3a  x + ...
x  8 
b  33b  2
So, + (a − 3b) +  − 3a  x = − 3 + cx
x  8  x

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 1
Comparing coefficients of gives b = 2
x
Comparing constant terms gives a − 3b = −3
Since b = 2 then a − 6 = −3  a = 3

33b
Comparing coefficients of x gives − 3a = c
8
33  2
Since a = 3 and b = 2 then c = − 3  3 = 34 .
8
So, a = 3 , b = 2 and c = 34 .

Approximations
If the value of x is small, then the first few terms of a binomial expansion make a good
approximation. The example below shows this.

Example 8

Find the first four terms in the expansion of (1 + 2 x) .

30
(a)
30
(b) By substituting x = 0.01, find an approximate value for 1.02 .
(c) Compare this approximate value with the answer you get on a calculator.

Solution

(a) (1 + 2 x)30 = 1 + 30 C1 (2 x) + 30 C2 (2 x) 2 + 30 C3 (2 x)3 + ...

= 1 + 30(2 x) + 435(4 x) 2 + 4060(8 x3 ) + ...
= 1 + 60 x + 1740 x 2 + 32 480 x3 + ...

(b) (1.02)30  1 + 60(0.01) + 1740(0.01) 2 + 32480(0.01)3

 1 + 0.6 + 1740  0.000 1 + 32480  0.000001
 1 + 0.6 + 0.174 + 0.03248
 1.80648

(c) Using a calculator 1.02

30
= 1.811
The approximation is correct to two decimal places.

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