gistfile1.txt

Apr 12 19:49:38 <zHafydd>	You can derive 11^5 from the 11th row of Pascal's triangle: 1, 5, 10, 10, 5, 1.
Apr 12 19:50:13 <lemonade`>	how would that work?
Apr 12 19:50:28 <zHafydd>	11^5 = 1 + 5*10 + 10*10^2 + 10*10^3 + 5*10^4 + 1*10^5
Apr 12 19:51:11 <zHafydd>	A consequence of the binomial theorem.
Apr 12 19:51:14 <lemonade`>	weird.
Apr 12 19:51:50 <zHafydd>	If you think it's weird, you haven't thought about it enough.
Apr 12 19:52:25 <baxx>	zHafydd: should the binomial be obvious?
Apr 12 19:52:30 <lemonade`>	I likely haven't. I'm on it now :)
Apr 12 19:53:08 <zHafydd>	baxx: should the binomial theorem be obvious? To a person practicing mathematics beyond an elementary level, yes.
Apr 12 19:53:35 <baxx>	zHafydd: because they've been told or because, using a basic toolset, it's obvious
Apr 12 19:53:51 <zHafydd>	baxx: is that a question?
Apr 12 19:54:28 <baxx>	zHafydd: yes - I'm wondering if you're suggesting that it's obvious because of it's nature or its prominence in maths education
Apr 12 19:54:34 <PlanckWalk>	Both
Apr 12 19:54:48 <Vornicus>	--actually you can get it to work for other numbers...  12^5 = 2^5 * 1 * 10^0 + 2^4 * 5 * 10^1 + 2^3 * 10 * 10^2 + 2^2 * 10 * 10^3 + 2^1 * 5 * 10^4 + 2^0 * 1 * 10^5
Apr 12 19:55:02 <Vornicus>	that's kind of a shrieking horror.
Apr 12 19:55:15 <zHafydd>	baxx: I mean the latter. It might not be "obvious" to derive the bionomial theorem immediately, because one first needs to formalise the binomial coefficients. It takes a bit of thought, at least. But after that, it is obvious.
Apr 12 19:55:49 <baxx>	zHafydd: cheers, i wasn't sure which you were referring to.
Apr 12 19:57:45 <zHafydd>	About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news!