Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2016/ia/paper-4/8e/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 ia Paper 4 8E b Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
For the alternating binomial moments, it is useful to differentiate in a form that introduces falling factorials. Write , with . Differentiating the binomial theorem times and multiplying by yields, for ,At , the right side vanishes when , and equals when .
The polynomials have degrees and leading coefficient , so successive cancellation of leading terms expresses as a linear combination of them. If , every falling-factorial term has index and hence its alternating sum vanishes. If , the coefficient of is , and all lower-index terms still vanish. Therefore the alternating moments areFor , the latter identity uses the constant polynomial , so its value at is ; thus as well. This makes the edge-case convention explicit rather than treating as an unrelated numerical expression.
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