Use the Binomial Theorem/Pascal's Triangle to expand (2a + 2b)^5

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Using Pascal's triangle we get:

Here, x = 2a and y = 2b

So the terms become:

Hence:

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32a^5+160a^4b+320a^3b^2+320a^2b^3+160ab^4+32b^5

Explanation:

Let's use Pascal's Triangle

In the row that starts with 1,5,... we have the values 1,5,10,10,5,1

These will be the coefficients of the terms.

Let x = 2a and y = 2b

We want to expand out (x+y)^5

Using pascals triangle, we get the following expansion

(x+y)^5 = 1x^5y^0+5x^4y^1+10x^3y^2+10x^2y^3+5x^1y^4+1x^0y^5

The numbers in bold are the coefficients 1,5,10,10,5,1 found earlier.

Note how the exponents for x start at 5 and count down to 0; while the y exponents start at 0 and count up to 5. For any term, the x and y exponents always add to 5 for the expansion of (x+y)^5. In general, the exponents of any term will add to n for (x+y)^n.

At this point, we plug in x = 2a and y = 2b

Since this will clutter things a bit, I'll do it term by term

So in the end, the expression (2a+2b)^5 expands out to

32a^5+160a^4b+320a^3b^2+320a^2b^3+160ab^4+32b^5

The binomial theorem uses the same basic idea, but instead of using Pascal's Triangle to get the coefficients, you'll use the nCr combination formula.