Pascal's Triangle

Binomial expansion

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \begin{align} (a+b)^0 &= 1 \\ (a+b)^1 &= a + b \\ (a+b)^2 &= a^2 + 2ab + b^2 \\ (a+b)^3 &= (a+b)(a+b)^2=(a+b)(a^2 + 2ab + b^2) \\ &= a^3 + 2a^2 b + ab^2 +ba^2 + 2ab^2+b^3 \\ &= a^3 + 3a^2 b + 3ab^2+b^3 \\ (a+b)^4 &= \cdots \end{align} }

Pascal's triangle

Pascal's Triangle

The coefficients of binomial expansion can be easily seen from the Pascal triangle. The number is a sum of the two numbers above it.

Pascal's triangle: Negative 1

This can be extended to negative numbers easily.

Pascal triangle extended to negative values

Now, instead of expanding Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle (a+b)^n} , we will use Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle (1+x)^n} , where Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle n} is a negative integer. We get according to the Pascal triangle

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \begin{align} (1+x)^{-1} = 1 - x + x^2 - x^3 + \cdots \\ \end{align} }