Multinomial Theorem

How do I find the coefficient of 𝒙𝟓 in the expansion of (𝟏 + 𝒙 + 𝒙𝟐 )𝟔 ?

Techniques Using Pascal Triangle
Although there are many clever techniques I'm going to provide you with a basic nuts-and-bolts 22-
dimensional recurrence table a la Pascal’s Triangle.

Recall Pascal’s Triangle begins something like this:

The example boxes show how each successive row is formed by

adding together neighbouring entries in the previous row:

𝟑+𝟑 = 𝟔

Also remember that the 𝒏𝒕𝒉 row of Pascal’s triangle gives the
coefficients of powers of 𝒙 in the expansion of (𝟏 + 𝒙)𝒏

So, for example, row number 𝟒 represents the expansion:

(𝟏 + 𝒙)𝟒 = 𝟏 + 𝟒𝒙 + 𝟔𝒙𝟐 + 𝟒𝒙𝟑 + 𝒙𝟒

 Clearly then, the column numbers 𝒌 refer to powers of 𝒙.

𝒏
 The major difference with the expansion of (𝟏 + 𝒙 + 𝒙𝟐 ) is that we want to add together the
entries directly above, above and left 1 cell and above and left 2 cells, contrast with Pascal’s
triangle where we simply added together the entry in the cell directly above and the entry
above and left.

Our “triangle” looks like this:

The example boxes show how

we obtain each successive row:
𝟑+𝟔+𝟕

𝟔
[𝒙𝟓 ](𝟏 + 𝒙 + 𝒙𝟐 ) = 𝟏𝟐𝟔(𝑨𝒏𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒓)

What I particularly like about this method is it's visual appeal and its similarity to Pascal’s Triangle
(something most of us are familiar with). You can clearly see the symmetry in each row, just like in Pascal’s
Triangle, and the recurrence is reassuringly similar to Pascals’. I feel this table inspires also, because, just
as we know there are many interesting patterns in Pascal’s triangle, the similarity here seems to suggest
that our new triangle may have some interesting secrets of it’s own to yield, I'll leave that little
investigation to the reader should she be interested.