How do you find the binomial expansion of (2x-1)^5(2x1)5?

1 Answer
Aug 6, 2015

Multiply the 66th row of Pascal's triangle by a sequence of descending powers of 22 to find the coefficients:

(2x-1)^5 = 32x^5-80x^4+80x^3-40x^2+10x-1(2x1)5=32x580x4+80x340x2+10x1

Explanation:

Write down the 66th row of Pascal's triangle as a sequence:

11, 55, 1010, 1010, 55, 11

Write down descending powers of 22 from 2^525 to 2^020 as a sequence:

3232, 1616, 88, 44, 22, 11

Multiply the two sequences together to get:

3232, 8080, 8080, 4040, 1010, 11

With suitable alternation of signs, these are the coefficients of the terms in descending powers of xx:

(2x-1)^5 = 32x^5-80x^4+80x^3-40x^2+10x-1(2x1)5=32x580x4+80x340x2+10x1