Nanyang Girls High School Sec 4 Integrated Mathematics

The Binomial Theorem Teacher’s notes

Introduction to n! (read as “n factorial”), n Pr (read as “n P r”) and n C r (read as “n C r”)

Think Pair Share

Case 1
When we wish to arrange some people to stand in a row for
their group photograph to be taken, how many ways are there
to arrange them if there are
(i) 3 people, (ii) 4 people ?

Suggested Questions:
 Does the order matter?
 How many different ways are there to fill the respective positions?

Solutions:
(i) (a) An intuitive approach:
Let the three people be A, B and C. Arranging and rearranging, the different ways are
ABC, ACB, BAC, BCA, CAB, CBA. Thus there are 6 ways.
(b) A mathematical approach:
The first position in the row can be taken up by any of the 3 people. For every
possible person out of the 3 people who takes the first position, whether it is A, B or
C, one of 2 other persons can take the second position. The third position will be
taken up by the third (and last) person. Thus the number of ways = 3 × 2 × 1 = 6.

(ii) (a) An intuitive approach : can be attempted by the students.

[you can help by reminding students to be systematic in their attempt]
ABCD, ABDC, ACBD, ACDB, ADBC, ADCB,
BACD, BADC, BCAD, BCDA, BDAC, BDCA,
CABD, CADB, CBAD, CBDA, CDAB, CDBA,
DABC, DACB, DBAC, DBCA, DCAB, DCBA.
Thus, there are 24 different ways.
(b) A mathematical approach: can be attempted by the students.
The first position can be taken up by any of the 4 people, the second position can be
taken up any of the remaining 3 people, the third position by either of the remaining 2
people, and the very last position will be left for the last person. By the same argument
as in (i) (b), there are 4  3  2  1 = 24 different ways for these 4 people to be
arranged in a row.

The notation 3! is used to represent 3 × 2 × 1, i.e., 3! = 3 × 2 × 1 = 6 .

Similarly, 4! = 4  3  2  1 = 24 .

What if there are n people? How many ways are there to arrange them in a row?

Answer: n! [Definition: n! = n  (n – 1)  (n – 2)  (n – 3)  . . .  3  2  1]

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Nanyang Girls High School Sec 4 Integrated Mathematics
The Binomial Theorem Teacher’s notes

Taking it further:
What is the value of 0! ?

Solution:
[Just as 5! = 5 × 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 = 5 × 4! for the case when n = 4 ]
In general, (n + 1)! = (n + 1)  n! .
! !
Dividing both sides by (n + 1), we get = n! which can be re-written as n! = .
! !
When n = 0, we have 0! = 1. which is a very useful result to know.

To summarise, n! = n  (n – 1)! and 0! = 1

Think Pair Share

CASE 2
8 people take part in a race, how many ways can the first 3
positions be won?

Suggested Questions:
 Does the order matter?
 How many different ways are there to fill the respective positions?
 After winning one of the prizes, can the same person win the remaining prizes?

Solution:
[You may suggest to the students to refer to the mathematical approach in CASE 1]

There are 8  7  6 = 336 ways for the first three positions to be won.

Think Pair Share

CASE 3
A form teacher needs to nominate a team of 3 students from a
group of 8 students to participate in the Hamper Wrapping
Competition. How many possible ways are there to form a team?

Suggested Questions:
 Does the order matter?
 How many different ways are there to fill the respective positions?

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Nanyang Girls High School Sec 4 Integrated Mathematics
The Binomial Theorem Teacher’s notes

Solution:
First step: the first position can be taken by any of the 8 students, the second position by any of
the remaining 7 students, the third position by any of the remaining 6 students.
Thus, there are 8  7  6 ways of doing this = 336 ways, as discussed earlier.

Next step: as these students do not need to be positioned in any particular order, unlike the
situations discussed earlier in CASE 2, we need to disregard the number of ways the 3 students
are arranged in order, which is 3  2  1 = 3! ways.
Therefore, the actual number of combinations for 3 students to be chosen out of 8 is
56 ways.

Think it through:
How can the expressions in CASE 2 and CASE 3 be represented using factorials?

For Case 2:
8  7  6  5  4  3  2 1 8! 8!
876 = = = .
5  4  3  2 1 5! 8  3!
We can thus deduce that, when the order of arrangement does matter, then, to arrange r items
n!
out of a total of n items available, the number of ways is .
n  r !
When the order is important, the arrangement is known as a Permutation and we represent it
n!
with the notation n Pr . Thus n
Pr = .
n  r !
Note that n  r , where n and r are non-negative integers.

For Case 3:
876 8  7  6  5  4  3  2 1 8!
 
3  2  1 (3  2  1) (5  4  3  2  1) 3! 8  3!
We can thus deduce that, when the order of arrangement does not matter, then, to arrange
n!
r items out of a total of n items available, the number of ways is .
r ! n  r !

When the order is of no concern, the arrangement is known as a Combination and we
n n n n!
represent it with the notation n C r or   . Thus,   = C r = .
r r r !(n  r )!

Note that n  r , where n and r are non-negative integers.

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Nanyang Girls High School Sec 4 Integrated Mathematics
The Binomial Theorem Teacher’s notes

How are n Pr and n C r related?

n
Pr = n C r × r !

Practice Question
Use a calculator to obtain the value of each of the following:
 9 10  10  12 
(i)   (ii)   (iii)   (iv)  
 0 3 7 12 

Answers: (i) 1 (ii) 120 (iii) 120 (iv) 1

𝑛
The following values are useful to know. Simplify (A) and (B), and complete the rest.
𝑟
𝑛 ! 3 8 12
(A) 1, e.g., = 1, = 1, = 1.
0 ! ! 0 0 0
𝑛 ! 4 7 10
(B) 1, e.g., = 1, = 1, = 1.
𝑛 ! ! 4 7 10
𝑛 𝑛 8 ! 8 ! 8 8
(C) = , e.g., , .  = .
𝑟 𝑛 𝑟 3 ! ! 5 ! ! 3 5

Think it through:
𝑛 𝑛 𝑛
Can you simplify the expressions of , and ?
1 2 3

n n! n  n  1  n  2   ...  2  1
Answers:     =n ,
 1  1!n  1! n  1  n  2  ...  2  1
 n n! n  n  1  n  2  ...  2  1 n n  1
     .
 2  2 !n  2 ! 2  1  n  2  n  3  ...  2  1 2

n n! n  n  1  n  2   n  3  ...  2  1 n n  1n  2

     .
 3  3!n  3! 3  2  1  n  3  n  4  ...  2  1 6

[The expressions above may be used in questions in which the power of the binomial is
unknown (see Examples 8 and 9 later).]

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