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S E C T I O N 8–6 Binomial Formula 779

APPLICATIONS Compute the approximate empirical probabilities:

(A) Of a household earning $12,000–$19,999 per year and
79. MARKET ANALYSIS A company selected 1,000 households owning exactly three television sets
at random and surveyed them to determine a relationship be- (B) Of a household earning $20,000–$39,999 per year and
tween income level and the number of television sets in a home. owning more than one television set
The information gathered is listed in the table: (C) Of a household earning $60,000 or more per year or owning
Televisions per Household more than three television sets
(D) Of a household not owning zero television sets
Yearly Income ($) 0 1 2 3 Above 3
80. MARKET ANALYSIS Use the sample results in Problem 79
to compute the approximate empirical probabilities:
Less than 12,000 0 40 51 11 0
(A) Of a household earning $40,000–$59,999 per year and
12,000–19,999 0 70 80 15 1 owning zero television sets
(B) Of a household earning $12,000–$39,999 per year and
20,000–39,999 2 112 130 80 12 owning more than two television sets
40,000–59,999 10 90 80 60 21 (C) Of a household earning less than $20,000 per year or
owning exactly two television sets
60,000 or more 30 32 28 25 20 (D) Of a household not owning more than three television sets

8-6 Binomial Formula

Z Pascal’s Triangle
Z The Binomial Formula
Z Proof of the Binomial Formula

The binomial form

(a  b)n

where n is a natural number, appears more frequently than you might expect. It turns
out that the coefficients in the expansion are related to probability concepts that we
have already discussed.

Z Pascal’s Triangle
Let’s begin by expanding (a  b)n for the first few values of n. We include n  0,
which is not a natural number, for reasons of completeness that will become apparent
later.

(a  b)0  1
(a  b)1  a  b (1)
(a  b)2  a2  2ab  b2
(a  b)3  a3  3a2b  3ab2  b3
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780 CHAPTER 8 SEQUENCES, INDUCTION, AND PROBABILITY

ZZZ EXPLORE-DISCUSS 1

Based on the expansions in equations (1), how many terms would you expect
1 (a  b)n to have? What is the first term? What is the last term?

1 1

1 2 1
Now let’s examine just the coefficients of the expansions in equations (1) arranged
1 3 3 1 in a form that is usually referred to as Pascal’s triangle (Fig. 1).
It is convenient to refer to the top row of Pascal’s triangle (containing a single 1)
Z Figure 1 as row 0. Then row 1 is “1 1,” row 2 is “1 2 1,” and row 3 is “1 3 3 1.” For n a
Pascal’s triangle. natural number, the first two entries of row n are 1 and n.

ZZZ EXPLORE-DISCUSS 2

Refer to Figure 1.
(A) How is the middle element of row 2 related to the elements in the row
above?
(B) How are the two inner elements of row 3 related to the elements in the
row above?
(C) Based on your observations in parts A and B, conjecture the entries of
row 4 and row 5. Check your conjecture by expanding (a  b)4 and (a  b)5.

Many students find Pascal’s triangle a useful tool for determining the coeffi-
cients in the expansion of (a  b)n, especially for small values of n. Figure 2 con-
tains output from a program called PASCAL.* You should recognize the output in
the table—it is the first six lines of Pascal’s triangle. The major drawback of using
this triangle, whether it is generated by hand or on a graphing calculator, is that
to find the elements in a given row, you must write out all the preceding rows. It
would be useful to find a formula that gives the coefficients for a binomial expan-
sion directly. Fortunately, such a formula exists—the combination formula Cn,r
Z Figure 2 introduced in Section 8-4.

Z The Binomial Formula

When working with binomial expansions, it is customary to use the notation (nr ) for
Cn, r. Recall the combination formula from Section 8-4.

*Programs for TI-84 and TI-86 graphing calculators can be found at the website for this book.
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S E C T I O N 8–6 Binomial Formula 781

COMBINATION FORMULA For nonnegative integers r and n, 0  r  n,

a b  Cn,r 
n n!
r r!(n  r)!

Theorem 1 establishes that the coefficients in a binomial expansion can always

be expressed in terms of the combination formula. This is a very important theo-
retical result and a very practical tool. As we shall see, using this theorem in con-
junction with a graphing utility provides a very efficient method for expanding
binomials.

Z THEOREM 1 Binomial Formula

For n a positive integer

n
(a  b)n  a a b ank bk
n
k0 k

We defer the proof of Theorem 1 until the end of this section. Because the val-
ues of the combination formula are the coefficients in a binomial expansion, it is nat-
ural to call them binomial coefficients.

EXAMPLE 1 Using the Binomial Formula

Use the binomial formula to expand (x  y)6.

6
(x  y)6  a a b x6ky k
6
k0 k

 a b x6y0  a b x5y  a b x4y2  a b x3y3  a b x2y4  a b xy5  a b x0y6

6 6 6 6 6 6 6
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
 x6  6x5y  15x4y2  20x3y3  15x2y4  6xy5  y6

Note that the coefficients (1, 6, 15, 20, 15, 6, 1) are the entries of row 6 of Pascal’s
triangle. 

MATCHED PROBLEM 1

Use the binomial formula to expand (x  1)5. 

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782 CHAPTER 8 SEQUENCES, INDUCTION, AND PROBABILITY

EXAMPLE 2 Using the Binomial Formula

Use the binomial formula to expand (3p  2q)4.

SOLUTION

(3p  2q)4  [(3p)  (2q)] 4

4
 a a b (3p)4k(2q)k
4
k0 k

4
 a a b 34k(2)kp4kqk
4
k0 k

 1(3)4(2)0p4q0  4(3)3(2)p3q  6(3)2(2)2p2q2

 4(3)(2)3pq3  1(3)0(2)4p0q4
 81p4  216p3q  216p2q2  96pq3  16q4

Note that the coefficients (81, 216, 216, 96, 16) are formed by multiplying the
entries in row 4 of Pascal’s triangle (1, 4, 6, 4, 1) by the appropriate powers of 3
and 2.

Technology
Connections

Z Figure 3 y1  C4,x3 (2) .

4x x

The table feature on a graphing calculator provides

an efficient alternative to calculating the coeffi-
cients of Example 2 one by one (Fig. 3).

MATCHED PROBLEM 2

Use the binomial formula to expand (2m  5n)3. 

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S E C T I O N 8–6 Binomial Formula 783

ZZZ EXPLORE-DISCUSS 3

(A) Compute each term and also the sum of the alternating series

a ba ba b...a b

6 6 6 6
0 1 2 6

(B) What result about an alternating series can be deduced by letting a  1

and b  1 in the binomial formula?

EXAMPLE 3 Using the Binomial Formula

Find the term containing x9 in the expansion of (x  3)14.

SOLUTION

In the expansion
14
(x  3)14  a a b x14k3k
14
k0 k

the exponent of x is 9 when k  5. Thus, the term containing x9 is

a b x 3  (2,002)(243)x9  486,486x9
14 9 5
5 

MATCHED PROBLEM 3

Find the term containing y8 in the expansion of (2  y)14. 

EXAMPLE 4 Using the Binomial Formula

If the terms in the expansion of (x  2)20 are arranged in decreasing powers of x,

find the fourth term and the sixteenth term.

SOLUTION

In the expansion of (a  b)n, the exponent of b in the rth term is r  1 and the expo-
nent of a is n  (r  1). Thus,

Fourth term: Sixteenth term:

a b x (2)3 a b x (2)15
20 17 20 5
3 15
20  19  18 17 20  19  18  17  16 5
 x (8)  x (32,768)
321 54321
 9,120x17  508,035,072 x5 
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784 CHAPTER 8 SEQUENCES, INDUCTION, AND PROBABILITY

MATCHED PROBLEM 4

If the terms in the expansion of (u  1)18 are arranged in decreasing powers of u,

find the fifth term and the twelfth term. 

Z Proof of the Binomial Formula

We now proceed to prove that the binomial formula holds for all natural numbers n
using mathematical induction.

PROOF State the conjecture.

n
Pn: (a  b)n  a a b anjb j
n
j0 j

PART 1 Show that P1 is true.

1

a a j b a b  a 0 b a  a 1 b b  a  b  (a  b)
1 1j j 1 1 1

j0

Thus, P1 is true.

PART 2 Show that if Pk is true, then Pk1 is true.

k
Pk: (a  b)k  a a b akjb j
k
Assume Pk is true.
j0 j
k1
k  1 k1j j
Pk1: (a  b)k1  a a ba b Show Pk  1 is true.
j0 j

We begin by multiplying both sides of Pk by (a  b):

k
(a  b)k(a  b)  c a a b akjb j d (a  b)
k
j0 j

The left side of this equation is the left side of Pk1. Now we multiply out the right
side of the equation and try to obtain the right side of Pk1:
Use the

 c a b ak  a b ak1b  a b ak2b2  . . .  a b bk d (a  b)
k k k k distributive
(a  b) k1
property.
0 1 2 k

 c a ba  a ba b  a ba b   a b abk d
k k1 k k k k1 2 . . . k
0 1 2 k

 c a b akb  a b ak1b2  . . .  a b abk  a b bk1 d

k k k k Combine
0 1 k1 k like terms.

 a b ak1  c a b  a b d akb  c a b  a b d ak1b2  . . .

k k k k k
0 0 1 1 2

 ca b  a b d abk  a b bk1
k k k
k1 k k
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S E C T I O N 8–6 Binomial Formula 785

We now use the following facts (the proofs are left as exercises; see Problems 63–65,
Exercises 8-6).

k1 k1 k1

a ba ba b a ba b a ba b
k k k k
r1 r r 0 0 k k1

to rewrite the right side as

k  1 k1 k1 k k  1 k1 2 . . .

a ba a ba b  a ba b 
0 1 2
k1 k  1 k1 k1
k  1 k1j j
a b abk  a bb  a a ba b
k k1 j0 j

Because the right side of the last equation is the right side of Pk1, we have shown
that Pk1 follows from Pk.

CONCLUSION Pn is true. That is, the binomial formula holds for all positive integers n.

ANSWERS TO MATCHED PROBLEMS

1. x5  5x4  10x3  10x2  5x  1 2. 8m3  60m2n  150mn2  125n3

3. 192,192y8
4. 3,060u ; 31,824u
14 7

8-6 Exercises

In Problems 1–10, use Pascal’s triangle to evaluate each Expand Problems 21–32 using the binomial formula.
expression.
21. (m  n)3 22. (x  2)3 23. (2x  3y)3
1. a b 2. a b 3. a b 4. a b 5. a b
6 6 7 7 8
24. (3u  2v)3 25. (x  2)4 26. (x  y)4
2 3 4 5 5
27. (m  3n)4 28. (3p  q)4 29. (2x  y)5
6. a b
8
7. C7,1 8. C5,5 9. C5,4 10. C6,1 30. (2x  1)5 31. (m  2n)6 32. (2x  y)6
7

In Problems 11–20, evaluate each expression. In Problems 33–42, find the term of the binomial expansion
containing the given power of x.
11. a b 12. a b 13. a b 14. a b
26 26 10 12
2 23 6 4 33. (x  1)7; x4 34. (x  1)8; x5
35. (2x  1)11; x6 36. (3x  1)12; x7
15. a b 16. a b
10 15
17. C52,5 18. C13,10
5 8 37. (2x  3)18; x14 38. (3x  2)17; x5
19. C13,9 20. C52,4 39. (x2  1)6; x8 40. (x2  1)9; x7
41. (x2  1)9; x11 42. (x2  1)10; x14
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786 CHAPTER 8 SEQUENCES, INDUCTION, AND PROBABILITY

In Problems 43–50, find the indicated term in each expansion 58. (A) Find the largest term of the sequence a0, a1, a2, . . . , a10
if the terms of the expansion are arranged in decreasing to three decimal places, where
powers of the first term in the binomial.
ak  a b (0.3)10k(0.7)k
10
43. (u  v)15; seventh term k
44. (a  b)12; fifth term (B) According to the binomial formula, what is the sum of
45. (2m  n) ; eleventh term
12 the series a0  a1  a2  . . .  a10?

46. (x  2y)20; third term 59. Evaluate (1.01)10 to four decimal places, using the binomial
formula. [Hint: Let 1.01  1  0.01.]
47. [(w2)  2]12; seventh term
60. Evaluate (0.99)6 to four decimal places, using the binomial
48. (x  3)10; fourth term formula.
49. (3x  2y)8; sixth term
61. Show that: a b  a b
n n
50. (2p  3q) ; fourth term
7 r nr

62. Show that: a b  a b

n n
In Problems 51–54, use the binomial formula to expand and 0 n
simplify the difference quotient
k1
63. Show that: a ba ba b
k k
f (x  h)  f (x)
r1 r r
h
k1
64. Show that: a b  a b
k
for the indicated function f. Discuss the behavior of the
0 0
simplified form as h approaches 0.
k1
65. Show that: a b  a b
k
51. f(x)  x3 52. f(x)  x4
k k1
53. f(x)  x5 54. f(x)  x6
66. Show that: a b is given by the recursion formula
n
r
In Problems 55–58, use a graphing utility to graph each
nr1
a b a b
sequence and to display it in table form. n n
r r r1
55. Find the number of terms of the sequence
where a b  1.
n
a b, a b, a b, . . . , a b
20 20 20 20 0
0 1 2 20
67. Write 2n  (1  1)n and expand, using the binomial for-
that are greater than one-half of the largest term. mula to obtain
56. Find the number of terms of the sequence
2n  a b  a b  a b  . . .  a b
n n n n
0 1 2 n
a b, a b, a b, . . . , a b
40 40 40 40
0 1 2 40 68. Write 0  (1  1)n and expand, using the binomial formula,
that are greater than one-half of the largest term. to obtain

57. (A) Find the largest term of the sequence a0, a1, a2, . . . , a10
0  a b  a b  a b  . . .  (1)na b
n n n n
to three decimal places, where
0 1 2 n

ak  a b (0.6)10k(0.4)k
10
k
(B) According to the binomial formula, what is the sum of
the series a0  a1  a2  . . .  a10?