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Constructing Pascal's Triangle Explained

Pascal's Triangle is constructed by adding the two numbers above and to the left and right of each entry. The first row contains two 1s, and subsequent rows are built by adding the numbers above. A number in the triangle can be found using the binomial coefficient formula nCr. The sum of the numbers in any given row is equal to 2 raised to the power of the row number.

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Vijay Kumar
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6 views1 page

Constructing Pascal's Triangle Explained

Pascal's Triangle is constructed by adding the two numbers above and to the left and right of each entry. The first row contains two 1s, and subsequent rows are built by adding the numbers above. A number in the triangle can be found using the binomial coefficient formula nCr. The sum of the numbers in any given row is equal to 2 raised to the power of the row number.

Uploaded by

Vijay Kumar
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

How Pascal's Triangle is Constructed

At the tip of Pascal's Triangle is the


number 1, which makes up the 0th row.
The first row (1 & 1) contains two 1's,
both formed by adding the two numbers
above them to the left and the right, in
this case 1 and 0. All numbers outside
the triangle are considered 0's. Do the
same to create the 2nd row: 0+1=1;
1+1=2; 1+0=1. And the third: 0+1=1;
1+2=3; 2+1=3; 1+0=1. In this way, the
rows of the triangle go on forever. A
number in the triangle can also be found
by nCr (n Choose r) where n is the
number of the row and r is the element
in that row. For example, in row 3, 1 is
the 0th element, 3 is first element, the
next three is the 2nd element, and the last
1 is the 3rd element. The formula for nCr
is:
The factoral symbol ! means the
positive integer multiplied by all the
positive integers that are smaller than it.
Thus
5! = 5 4 3 2 1 = 120.

The Sums of the Rows


The sum of the numbers in any row is equal to 2 to the nth power or 2n, when n is the number of
the row. For example:
20 = 1
21 = 1+1 = 2
22 = 1+2+1 = 4
23 = 1+3+3+1 = 8
24 = 1+4+6+4+1 = 16

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