Online Course Discussion Forum

Pascal's Identity

 
 
Picture of Hai Melina
Pascal's Identity
by Hai Melina - Monday, January 23, 2023, 9:40 PM
 

How is n!+n•n! the same thing as (n+1)•n! ?

And how is (n+1)•n!/(k+1)!(n-k)! the same as n choose r formula?

Timestamp to point in Week 6 lesson that I am confused about: ~29:40

 
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Re: Pascal's Identity
by John Lensmire - Monday, January 23, 2023, 10:34 PM
 

For your first question, we're just factoring out an n! from each term. You can double check this by distributing: $n!\cdot (n+1) = n!\cdot n + n!\cdot 1 = n\cdot n! + n!$.

The second question can be a little more confusing. For reference, remember $\displaystyle \binom{A}{B} = \frac{A!}{B!\cdot (A-B)!}$. (I changed the variables on purpose just to make them stand our more compared to n's and k's.)

Now let's look at $\dfrac{(n+1)\cdot n!}{(k+1)!\cdot (n-k)!}$. What happens if $A = (n+1)$ and $B = (k+1)$? First, note $(n+1)\cdot n! = (n+1)!$ so the numerator of the fraction is just $A!$. For the denominator, $(k+1)! = B!$ and note $A-B = (n+1) - (k+1) = (n-k)$ so the other part of the denominator is $(A-B)!$.

Hence, the fraction $\displaystyle \frac{(n+1)\cdot n!}{(k+1)!\cdot (n-k)!} = \frac{A!}{B!\cdot (A-B)!} = \binom{A}{B}$.

Hope this helps!

Picture of Hai Melina
回复: Re: Pascal's Identity
by Hai Melina - Tuesday, January 24, 2023, 11:27 PM
 

I got it now, thanks!