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Number Patterns of Pascal’s Triangle

Found in topics: Numbers
Maths Query > Unit > Arithmetic > Number Pattern

Introduction to Pascal’s triangle

One of the most interesting number pattern in mathematics is Pascal’s triangle. This pattern is developed by a famous french mathematician and philosopher, Blaise Pascal.
To build the Pascal’s triangle start with 1 at top, then continue placing numbers below it in a triangular pattern.
The two side edges always have 1s placed on them.
Each number in Pascal’s triangle is the sum of two numbers just around it in the above row.

Pascal's triangle
Pascal's triangle

In above figure, which is a Pascal’s triangle,
There are only 1s numbers placed on the two edges.
In 3rd row, 2 is sum of 1 and 1 placed in 2nd row.
In 4th row, 3 is sum 1 and 2 placed in 3rd row.
In 5th row, 4 is sum 1 and 3 and 6 is sum of 3 and 3 placed in 4th row.
In 6th row, 6 is sum 1 and 5, 15 is sum of 5 and 10 and 20 is sum of 10 and 10 placed in 5th row.
In 7th row, 7 is sum 1 and 6, 21 is sum of 6 and 15 and 35 is sum of 20 and 15 placed in 6th row.

Number pattern on diagonals of Pascal’s triangle

Pascal's triangle diagonals
Pascal's triangle diagonals

The above figure, shows an interesting pattern formed with the numbers those are placed diagonally.
The first diagonal is just only 1s.
The second diagonal has counting numbers i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 etc., which is a sequence of integers.
The third diagonal of Pascal’s triangle has sequence of numbers 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21 etc. This series of numbers is also called triangular numbers.
The fourth diagonal is also an interesting sequence of numbers 1, 4, 10, 20, 35 etc., which are called as tetrahedral numbers.

Number pattern on rows of Pascal’s triangle

The sum of numbers on rows of Pascal’s triangle makes up the power of 2.

Pascal's triangle squares
Pascal's triangle squares

Let’s understand it from the above figure.
1st row: 1 = 1 = 11
2nd row: 1 + 1 = 2 = 21
3rd row: 1 + 2 + 1 = 4 = 22
4th row: 1 + 3 + 3 + 1 = 8 = 23
5th row: 1 + 4 + 6 + 4 + 1 = 16 = 24
6th row: 1 + 5 + 10 + 10 + 5 + 1 = 32 = 25
7th row: 1 + 6 + 15 + 20 + 15 + 6 + 1 = 64 = 26
8th row: 1 + 7 + 21 + 35 + 35 + 21 + 7 + 1 = 128 = 27

Last updated on: 30-06-2024