SERENDIPITOUS DISCOVERY OF PASCAL'S TRIANGLE

Author(s): FRANCIS W. STANLEY

Source: The Mathematics Teacher, Vol. 68, No. 2 (FEBRUARY 1975), pp. 95-98
Published by: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
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SERENDIPITOUS
DISCOVERY
OF PASCAL'STRIANGLE
What is the smallestnumber divisible by 1,2,8,4,5, 6, 7, 8,9,10?
Here is how thisquestion led one class to an excitingday ofpattern detection.

By FRANCISW. STANLEY no such integer exists. But in the fewmin

Junior High School
utes before class ended
Shelby
Shelby, North Carolina
10! = 10X 9 X 8 X 7 X 6 X 5
TEACHERS often welcome questions X 4X 3X 2X 1
from students?especially if the questions was introduced as evidence of the exist
were anticipated in preparing the lesson. ence of an integer that met these require
But unanticipated questions may not be so ments. The class was dismissed to go in
eagerly received. Some of these are moti search of the smallest such integer.
vated by a student's desire to divert the On the following day several students
teacher from the subject at hand; others, had found the integer in question, 23 X
by honest curiosity. Regardless of their 32 X 5 X 7 = 2,520. Several others had
motivation, there are those occasional come up with 5,040, and they were respon
questions that fit naturally into the discus sible for the following extension of our
sion. Many of these may well be worth the spontaneous assignment. By practicing
price of preempting a carefully planned their teacher's preachment that the study
lesson to search out a reasonable conclu of mathematics should result in their de
sion with the students. Such a question veloping a healthy skepticism, these stu
was responsible for a serendipitous digres dents challenged the smaller integer. This
sion in our first-year algebra class. led us to write the following display on
We were beginning a unit on factoring. the chalkboard:
To assist the students in factoring integers,
a few rules of divisibility were discussed. 2520 1= 2520

Rules for divisibility by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 2520 ^ 2 = 1260

and 10 were included. Then several prob
2520 -r 3= 840
lems were given to practice finding the
smallest integer greater than 100 divisible 2520 + 4 = 630
by 3; by 2 and 3; by 2, 3, and 5; and so --
2520 5= 504
on. While we were solving these problems,
one of those unanticipated questions arose -- 6 =
2520 420
from a student who asked, "What is the --
2520 7 = 360
smallest positive integer that is divisible
by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10?" This 2520 -f* 8 = 315
question became the assignment for that
2520 9 = 280
day.
The initial reaction of the class was that 2520 -f- 10 = 252

February 1975 95

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 Once satisfied that 2,520 did answer This observation led us to comment on the
the conditions, a student then asked if symmetry of the other diagonals. At the
there was a pattern to the quotients. It insistence of the class, we wrote the
was suggested that we compute the dif diagonals in row form on the chalkboard:
ferences between successive quotients in
search of a pattern. The differences were 252 28 7 3 2 2 3 7 28 252
found to generate the following sequence:
280 35 10 5 4 5 10 35 280
1260, 420, 210, 126, 84, 60, 45, 35, 28 315 45 15 9 9 15 45 315
This result was not too informative; so it
and so on.
was suggested that we repeatedly compute
the differences of the differences. These re It was observed that the rows got
sults appear in figure 1. The columns are shorter as we proceeded from the bottom
headed to the top, suggesting a triangular arrange
by subscripted D's. D0 represents
the original quotients, and the = ment. Since we had previously studied
(i 1,
some of the patterns contained in Pascal's
2, 3, ..., 9) represent the differences and
differences of differences. triangle, several of the students suggested
When the array was completed, things that we write our rows in a triangular

began to happen. One student observed array. The result is shown in figure 2. Only
that the initial list of quotients was dupli a few minutes were required for several
cated by the top numbers in each of the students to discover that we had made
ten columns. Another called attention to something like an upside down Pascal tri
the symmetry of the bottom diagonal: angle in which entries after the first line
can be obtained by adding consecutive en
252, 28, 7, 3, 2, 2, 3, 7, 28, 252 tries in the preceding line.

Di P. i>7
2520
l26?
126?
420
84Q 504
211) m 420
630 34 84 360
126 .42 60 315
504 42 24 45 280
M 15 35 252
420 24 9 10 28
.,,60
360 li 4 3
5
315 to
35 3
280 1
28
252

Fig. 1

96 Mathematics Teacher

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 252 '28 3 7 3 28
280 35 510 4 5 10 35 280
315 45 15 ) 9 15 45 315
360 60 24 18 24 60 360
420 M 42 42 84 420
504 126 S4 126 504
630 210 210 630
840 420 840
1260 1260
2520

Fig. 2

A student who had received a portable When the result of this division of col
electronic calculator for Christmas sug umn Di was shown, the class became
gested that we take the first entry in each interested in the quotients ; these numbers,
of the columns of figure 1 and divide it by 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, 36, 45, were recog
each of the entries in that column. By nized as a sequence of triangular numbers.
using his calculator, we quickly found the The result of divisions of D2 left us
following forD1 : with this listof quotients: 1,4, 10,20, 35,
56, 84, 120. Z>3 produced 1, 5, 15, 35, 70,
1260 1260 = 1 126, 210. The complete listing of quotients
of the columns where i = 0, 1, 2, 3, ...,
1260 -h 420 = 3
9, is shown in figure 3.
1260 + 210 = 6 Several observations were made from
the array. One was that columns Q0
1260 - - 126 = 10
through Q4 had consecutive pairs, the sec
1260 4- 84 = 15 ond of which was double the first. This
formed a diagonal pattern in the array
1260 + 60 = 21
(indicated by the line drawn in fig. 3).
1260 -?- 45 = 28 Again it was observed that the columns
-- got shorter as we looked from Q0 to Q9,
1260 35 = 36
suggesting another triangular arrange
1260 + 28 = 45 ment. A few students had written Pascal

T*rm Q. Q, Qt < Q< Q, Qe Qi Q* Q*

Fig. 3

February 1975 97

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 1 1
1 2 1. Ol
1 3 3 1. Ol
1 4 6 4 1.
1 5, 40 10 5 1. 0?
6 15 15 '?.
7 21 35 21 7
28 56 5?,
36 84 m 84 36
10 45 120 210 252 210 12Q 45 10 e.

Fig. 4

triangles on their note pads when we pro sirable. In fact, it more than comple
duced the array of figure 2. Suddenly, a mented the prepared unit on factoring.
hand shot up, and a student dashed to the The students were finding factors as they
board. He wrote Pascal's triangle as shown were finding quotients. The original ques
in figure 4 and happily pointed out that tion related to subsequent discussions of
the diagonals were duplicates of our col least common multiples. The students and
umns Qo through Q9 from figure 3. teacher shared the excitement of making
an unplanned discovery of a familiar rela
Although the unanticipated questions tionship. No less important, some of the
gave rise to exercises that consumed a students may have been led to study the
class period, the digression was not unde "cause" of the result.

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98 Mathematics Teacher

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