1.

4 - Counting Principles and the Binomial Theorem

The Fundamental Theorem of Counting

You're at a restaurant and you can order a 3-course meal with

choices for each course. You must choose one appetizer, one
main dish, one dessert. There are 2 appetizers to choose from, 3
main dishes and 2 desserts.

How many unique 3-course meals can you order?

The Fundamental Counting Theorem says that if there are 'm' different
ways of performing an operation, and for each of these there are 'n'
different ways of performing a second independent operation, then there
are 'mn' different ways of performing the two operations in succession.

So looking above, these are independent events because picking an

appetizer has an effect of picking a dessert. So therefore there are
different 3-course meals.

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Factorial Notation

We can see from the previous idea that multiplication is a useful tool in
counting. Multiplication is efficient addition - why add 7 up 5 times
when we can do ?

In counting problems, we commonly see the product of consecutive

positive integers so a notation was developed to help write it more
efficiently.

Ex: There are 4 people standing in a line, how many different ways can
you choose them (in order)?

Definition

For is the product of the first n positive integers.

reads "n factorial"

Ex:

Ex:

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By definition, 0! = 1 (that way we know it will always be defined for
positive integers and do not have to worry about negatives).

Proof:

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Ex: Evaluate (a) (b) (c)

Ex: Simplify: (a) (b)

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Permutations

A permutation of a group of elements is any arrangement of elements

that are in a definite order.

ABC would be a different permutation than CBA

Ex: How many different ways can the top 4 positions be filled form a
tournament of 10?

The example above can lead us into the formula for permutations, you
don't need a formula to do permutations but it can be helpful for more
challenging problems.

So if the number of possibilities, n, is 10, and the size of the

permutation, r, is 4, then the formula would be:

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Combinations

A combination is a selection of elements (or objects) without any

regard to order.

ABC is the exact same combination as CBA.

Ex: How many different ways can you select 3 letters from the set A, B,
C, D, and E?

So the example above had an answer of 10. But if we look back at a

permutation answer it would have been much larger… .
Why is this answer six times larger?

Remember that with combinations the order is not important. That is,
selecting A, B, and C is the same as selecting C, A, and B. For each of
the 10 possible combinations, there are 3! (6) ways of ordered the
letters.

The number of possible combinations then is

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Ex:
(a) In how many ways can the letters of the word candle be arranged?
(b) In how many ways can a group of four dogs and three cats be
arranged?
(c) In how many ways can a group of four dogs and three cats be
arranged if no cats are to be next to each other?

Ex: How many 4-digit numbers can be made using each of the following
digits only once?

(a) 5, 6, 7 and 8 (b) 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 (c) 7, 8, 9 and 0 (can't

start with a 0)

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Ex: There are 8 IB students and 5 non-IB students who attend a math
competition. Find how many ways the teacher can choose a team of six
students to represent the school in a competition if:

(a) there are no restrictions (they can be IB or non-IB)

(b) the team is to be made up of 3 non-IB students and 3 IB students
(c) at least 2 of each student (IB or non-IB) are included in the team.

Exercise 1H Pg 57 #2b, 3(b,c), 4 - 9

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The Binomial Theorem

In this section we will look at expanding binomials to very large

exponents. Before we can do this however, we need to expand a few by
hand and see the patterns that occur.

Expand and Simplify the following:

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The first pattern that we want to explore is in the coefficients in front
of each term. Since there is one more term on each line it makes a nice
triangular pattern as we write them out.

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This pattern above is called Pascal's Triangle. There are numerous
patterns within this triangle but we just want to use it right now for the
coefficients in front of the terms of a binomial expansion.

Some other patterns observed from these expansions:

1) The exponents on ANY term always add up to the exponent that we

expanded the binomial to (I call this the exponent of expansion).
2) As you progress from left to right, the exponents on 'a' decrease by 1
and the exponents on 'b' increase by 1.
3) The number of terms is always one more than the exponent of
expansion
4) The exponent on 'b' is the same as the term number (provided we
start with term 0)

So putting it all together, with Pascal's triangle and some of the patterns
above:

Pascal's Triangle is a great pattern however there is one MAJOR short

coming of it…

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Developing a better way

Ex: You are ordering out for pizza with some friends, the place you are
looking at has 4 different toppings to choose from: asparagus, broccoli,
cauliflower, and dill pickle. How many different combinations of pizza
can you order if you:

(a) Have 0 toppings on your pizza? (b) Have 1 topping on your pizza?
(c) Have 2 toppings on your pizza? (d) Have 3 toppings on your pizza?
(e) Have 4 toppings on your pizza?

So these numbers should look familiar to you… they are the

coefficients from Pascal's Triangle when you had an exponent of 4.

But think about how we counted these numbers to discover them. Is

there a more efficient way to count them?

What if you had 15 toppings to choose from and you wanted to make a
pizza of 7 toppings, how many different pizzas could you order?

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So the final pattern that I like to use when doing a binomial expansion
is:

1 4 6 4 1

1st term 2nd term 3rd term 4th term 5th term

So the top number is the exponent of expansion and the bottom number
is one less than the term number… OR

1 4 6 4 1

The exponent on the 'b' term is the same as the bottom number in the
combination coefficient.

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Now putting it all together using the formal definition… I don't
personally use this, I suggest using the patterns discussed but everyone
sees mathematics a different way (and that's the beauty of it!) so I don't
want to restrict the way you approach a problem.

I see myself as a facilitator who gives you some "tools" to tackle

problems, and then you take those and make them

OR you could use Sigma notation which would give:

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Ex: Expand and simplify

Ex: Find the 23rd term in the expansion of do not simplify

your answer.

Ex: Find the coefficient of the term that contains in the expansion
of

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Ex: Find the constant in the expansion of

Ex: The coefficient of in the expansion of is equal to the

coefficient of in the expansion of Find the value
of a.

Exercise 1I Pg 61 #1c, 2c, 3 - 6, 8

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Generalization of the Binomial Expansion:

We have only looked at the Binomial Expansion dealing with positive

integer exponents. You can apply the it with fractional and negative
exponents as well.

Let's dive deeper into this:

Consider the geometric series where x is not equal

to 0 (or it wouldn't be geometric).

For what values of x does this series converge?

What is the sum to infinity for this series when it converges?

Therefore, we can write that

If you wanted to explore other negative exponents, such as as an

example, we would have:

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We could repeat this process for the expansion of to see a bit
more of the pattern.

Newton generalized this result for negative and rational (fraction)

exponents of the binomial theorem as follows:

The binomial expansion for for and is

given by the infinite series:

The binomial expansion for for and is

given by the infinite series:

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Ex: Expand (a) , for (b) , for

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Ex: Use the binomial expansion to show that

Exercise 1J Pg 65 #1b, 2b, 4, 6

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