Pascal's Triangle
One of the most interesting Number Patterns is Pascal's Triangle (named after Blaise Pascal, a famous French Mathematician and Philosopher).
To build the triangle, start with "1" at the top, then continue placing numbers below it in a triangular pattern. Each number is just the two numbers above it added together (except for the edges, which are all "1").
(Here I have highlighted that 1+3 = 4)
Patterns Within the Triangle
Diagonals
The first diagonal is, of course, just "1"s, and the next diagonal has the Counting Numbers (1,2,3, etc). The third diagonal has the triangular numbers (The fourth diagonal, not highlighted, has the tetrahedral numbers.)
Odds and Evens
If you color the Odd and Even numbers, you end up with a pattern the same as the Sierpinski Triangle
Horizontal Sums
What do you notice about the horizontal sums? Is there a pattern? Isn't it amazing! It doubles each time (powers of 2).
Exponents of 11
Each line is also the powers (exponents) of 11: 110=1 (the first line is just a "1") 111=11 (the second line is "1" and "1") 112=121 (the third line is "1", "2", "1") etc!
5
But what happens with 11 ? Simple! The digits just overlap, like this:
The same thing happens with
116 etc.
Fibonacci Sequence
Try this: make a pattern by going up and then along, then add up the values (as illustrated) ... you will get the Fibonacci Sequence. (The Fibonacci Sequence starts "1, 1" and then continues by adding the two previous numbers, for example 3+5=8, then 5+8=13, etc)
Symmetrical
And the triangle is also symmetrical. The numbers on the left side have identical matching numbers on the right side, like a mirror image.
Polynomials
Pascal's Triangle can also show you the coefficients in binomial expansion:
Power
2 3 4
Binomial Expansion
(x + 1)2 = 1x2 + 2x + 1 (x + 1)3 = 1x3 + 3x2 + 3x + 1 (x + 1) = 1x + 4x + 6x + 4x + 1 ... etc ...
4 4 3 2
Pascal's Triangle
1, 2, 1 1, 3, 3, 1 1, 4, 6, 4, 1
The First 15 Lines
For reference, I have included row 0 to 14 of Pascal's Triangle
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 14 14 1 91 364 1001 2002 3003 3432 3003 2002 1001 364 91 13 12 78 11 66 286 10 55 9 45 165 220 715 495 8 36 7 28 84 120 330 792 1287 6 21 56 126 210 462 924 1716 5 15 35 70 126 252 462 792 1716 4 10 20 35 56 84 210 330 495 1287 715 3 6 10 15 21 28 36 120 165 220 286 45 55 66 78 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
