
Originally Posted by
laurie01
a/write down the binomial expansion of(p plus q)3.
Do you mean
Just type (p+q)^3. That 3 on the end just looks like you're multiplying by 3.
Anyway, these things follow a nice pattern.
The first one is always p^3.
The second: the exponent goes in front as a coefficient, decrease p by 1 and increase q by 1.
Now, it repeats the coefficient, p comes down 1 and q increases 1.
The last one is q^3.
So, we have
If this were longer, say (p+q)^6.
To find successive coefficients, multiply the coefficient by the exponent of p and divide by 1 more than the exponent of q.
So, we have
To find the next coefficient, we have
Now, since the exponents in p and q are the same(since we had an even exponent in the beginning, 6), we begin to repeat coefficients beginning with 15 and go backwards.
Look at Pascal's triangle.