Dr.

Nestler - Math 7 - Review of the Binomial Theorem

Definition. If 8 is a positive integer, then the expression 8x is defined to be the product of the
first 8 integers: 8x œ 8 † Ð8  "Ñâ# † ". This expression is read as "8 factorial."

Examples: "x œ "

#x œ #
$x œ '
%x œ #%

Definition. We define !x œ ".

Definition. If 8 and 5 are integers such that ! Ÿ 5 Ÿ 8, then we define ˆ 85 ‰ œ 8x

5xÐ85Ñx .

Examples: ˆ $# ‰ œ $x
#x"x œ '
# œ$

ˆ ") ‰
"& œ
")x
"&x$x œ ")†"(†"'†"&†"%â#†"
"&†"%â#†"†$†#†" œ ")†"(†"'
$†#†" œ ")†"(†"'
' œ $ † "( † "' œ )"'

ˆ 88 ‰ œ 8x
8x!x œ"

ˆ 8! ‰ œ 8x
!x8x œ"

Binomial Theorem. Suppose + and , are real numbers and 8 is a positive integer. Then

Ð+  ,Ñ8 œ ˆ 8! ‰+8  ˆ 8" ‰+8" ,  â  ˆ 8"

8 ‰ 8"
+,  ˆ 88 ‰,8

ˆ 85 ‰+85 ,5 Þ
8
œ
5œ!

Examples: Ð+  ,Ñ" œ ˆ "! ‰+  ˆ "" ‰, œ +  ,

Ð+  ,Ñ# œ ˆ #! ‰+#  ˆ #" ‰+,  ˆ ## ‰,# œ +#  #+,  ,#

Ð+  ,Ñ$ œ ˆ $! ‰+$  ˆ $" ‰+# ,  ˆ $# ‰+,#  ˆ $$ ‰,$

œ +$  $+# ,  $+,#  ,$

Note: The symbol ˆ 85 ‰ is called a binomial coefficient. It may be read as "8 choose 5 ," since it
can be shown that ˆ 85 ‰ is an integer representing the number of different ways to choose a
combination of 5 objects from a set of 8 distinct objects.