MATHEMATICIAN

DATE

BAND

COMBINATORIAL REVALATIONS
PRECALCULUS | PACKER COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE

Section 1: A Combinatorial Identity

1. You have three copies of Lauren Groffs novel Arcadia to give to your friends.
(a) You think your friends Ally, Brendan, Chris and Daniel might enjoy the book. What are your options of who
to give the book to? List them out, each option in the bubble frame! CROSS OUT ANY UNUSED FRAME.

Now write out the combinatorics expression for the number of different options: ________
(b) Oh shoot! You forgot about your friend Elmendorf! You have Ally, Brendan, Chris, Daniel, and Elmendorf
but only three books. Instead of starting the problem over, lets use the work weve already done. In part (a)
you listed all the sets of three people that dont have Elmendorf. So you just need to list all the sets of three
people that do have Elmendorf! CROSS OUT ANY UNUSED FRAME.

Now write out the combinatorics expression for the number of different options for ways to give books if
Elmendorf is definitely getting a book: ________.
(c) Look at your work from part (a) and part (b). With your five friends, have you captured all the possible ways
to distribute your three copies of Arcadia to three of your five friends? YES / NO
We have secretly conceptually understood an important identity: 5 C3 = ______+ _______

2. You have five copies of Tom Stoppards play Arcadia which is nothing like Lauren Groffs novel Arcadia.
(a) You have six friends you think might enjoy it. How many ways can you give out your copies of Arcadia?

(b) Dang! You think of a seventh friend who think might enjoy a copy of the book. Okay, lets do the same thing
we did in #1. In part (a), you already counted all the groups that dont include the seventh friend in part (a).
How many ways can you give out your five copies of Arcadia if you definitely include your seventh friend as one
of the recipients?

(c) What is the fancy combinatorial identity that we have just uncovered? _______ = ______+ _______
3. GENERAL EYES:
(a) Conceptual: Explain conceptually why n Cr + n Cr-1 = n+1 Cr . You can use the scenario of giving copies of a book
to friends. Explain what the first term on the left hand side means. Explain what the second term on the left
hand side means. Finally, explain why those two terms summed together yields the term on the right hand side.

(b) Algebraic:
Below is an algebraic demonstration of why 10 C3 +10 C4 =11 C4 .
Next to each line, explain what mathematical move was done!
10

C3 +10 C4

10! 10!
+
7!3! 6!4!
4 10! 7 10!

+
4 7!3! 7 6!4!
4 10! 7 10!
+
7!4! 7!4!
4 10!+ 7 10!
7!4!
(4 + 7) 10!
7!4!
1110!
7!4!
11!
7!4!
C
11 4
(c) Reproduce the algebraic argument, but this time, show

20

C5 + 20 C6 = 21 C6

Section 2: Binomial Expansions

4. We saw how we could use Pascals Triangle to help us expand binomials raised to a power.
(a) Quickly sketch Pascals Triangle, from row 0 to row 5.

(b) Use Pascals Triangle to expand (W+V)4

(c) Use Pascals Triangle to expand (2x + y)4 . (Hint: you might want to consider: ( 2x + y )4

(d) Use Pascals Triangle to expand (x - y)4 . (Hint: you might want to consider: ( x + - y )4

(e) Use Pascals Triangle to expand (2x5 - 5)3 . (Hint: you might want to consider: ( 2x5 + -5 )3

(f) Use Pascals Triangle to expand (10 +1)4 . I know you can do this without Pascal, but you should do it with
Pascal!

Section 3: The Secret Connection Between Pascals Triangle and Binomial Expansions
5. You have 5 white tiles laid out in order from left to right. You decide to stamp each of the tiles with either an
X or Y. (At the end, none of the tiles will be blank!)
(a) How many different do you have if you want to stamp all of the tiles with an X? Draw them and cross out
any unused diagrams.

WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW

(b) How many different do you have if you want to stamp exactly 4 of the tiles with an X? Draw them and
cross out any unused diagrams.

WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW

WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW
(c) How many different do you have if you want to stamp exactly 3 of the tiles with an X? Draw them and
cross out any unused diagrams.

WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW

WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW

(d) How many different do you have if you want to stamp exactly 2 of the tiles with an X? Draw them and
cross out any unused diagrams.

WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW

WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW

(e) How many different do you have if you want to stamp exactly 1 of the tiles with an X? Draw them and
cross out any unused diagrams.

WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW

WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW

(f) How many different do you have if you want to stamp exactly none of the tiles with an X? Draw them and
cross out any unused diagrams.

WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW

Check your answers to (a) to (f) by looking at this footnote.1

C5 , 5C4 , 5C3 , 5C2 , 5C1 , 5C0

. You should be able to understand why these are the answers!

6. We talked about a particular way to multiply polynomials in class.

Lets apply that here: (x + y)(x + y)(x + y)(x + y)(x + y)
Okay, Ill be kind Ill write out the tree diagram for you.

(a) Five paths are noted in the diagram (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5). Identify which term in the expansion corresponds to
those paths:
#1: _____________________

#2: _____________________

#3: _____________________

#4: _____________________

#5: _____________________
Hopefully you see that this is like the tile problem!
Now we know that a path that corresponds with yxxxy actually represents the term x 3 y 2 .
(b) In the diagram, box in all paths which correspond to the term x 3 y 2 . How many are there? _______
Do you see how these paths are related to #5c?

(c) So lets say we had (x + y)9 . Thats a huge tree diagram. Imagine it! How many branches will it have at the
bottom?
How many of those
branches will correspond
with

x9 ?

How many of those

branches will correspond
with

x 4 y5 ?

How many of those

branches will correspond
with

x8 y

How many of those

branches will correspond
with

x3 y6 ?

How many of those

branches will correspond
with

x7 y2 ?

How many of those

branches will correspond
with

x 2 y7 ?

How many of those

branches will correspond
with

x6 y3 ?

How many of those

branches will correspond
with

xy 8 ?

How many of those

branches will correspond
with

x5 y 4 ?

How many of those

branches will correspond
with

y9

Section 4: Another Connection Between Pascals Triangle and Binomial Expansions

7. Below is a visualization of how we can figure out (x + y)4 by using this:

(x + y) (x + y)3 = x 1x 3 + 3x 2 y + 3xy 2 +1y 3 + y 1x3 + 3x 2 y + 3xy 2 +1y3

The first line is (x + y)3. The second line shows that were going to multiply each term by both x and y. The third
line shows what results when we multiply each of those terms by x and y. Fill those boxes in. One has been
done for you. The last line has you combine like terms. Do that!

8. Try this again! But figure out (x + y)6 , assuming that you have previously figured out that

(x + y)5 = 1x5 + 5x 4 y +10x 3 y 2 +10x 2 y3 + 5xy 4 +1y5

9. Look at #7 and #8. Remember how we generated Pascals Triangle (see right)?
Can you concretely see how that process is actually the same process as this
binomial expansion process?
If we know one row in Pascals Triangle, we can generate the next row in Pascals
Triangle in a way that exactly mimics what we did if we know a particular binomial
expansion (like (x + y)3) and we wanted to generate the next binomial expansion
(like (x + y)4 ).