Can I show that n cdot ((n-1),(n))=0?

Staffangz

Staffangz

Answered question

2022-09-05

Can I show that n ( n 1 n ) = 0?
A brief question: I know that ( n k ) isn't defined for n < k, however, can I show that n ( n 1 n ) = 0? if so how can I do that? I saw through wolfram that it really is zero, and I was wondering how he got into it. I have encountered this debate in a question when I needed to find a closed form of the next series:
k = 0 n ( n k ) ( n k )
And instead of getting n out first, I have tried to do the following steps:
k = 0 n ( n k ) ( n k ) = k = 0 n n ! k ! ( n k ) ! ( n k ) = k = 0 n n ! k ! ( n k 1 ) ! = n k = 0 n ( n 1 ) ! k ! ( n k 1 ) ! = n k = 0 n ( n 1 k ) = n [ ( n 1 n ) + k = 0 n 1 ( n 1 k ) by Newton's binomial   it is  2 n 1 ] = n [ ( n 1 n ) + 2 n 1 ] = n ( n 1 n ) + n 2 n 1
Now is it valid to right this as final result of a closed form for k = 0 n ( n k ) ( n k )?

Answer & Explanation

madirans2m

madirans2m

Beginner2022-09-06Added 17 answers

Step 1
( n k ) is equal to 0 for n < k, so your expression simplifies to
n 0
which is obviously equal to 0.
Step 2
The fact that
( n k ) = 0
for n < k comes down to the definition of ( n k ) . The value is defined as
The number of k-element subsets of a n-element set.
From this definition, the fact should be fairly obvious, since if k > n, there are no subsets of an n-element set that contain more than n elements.

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