Evaluation of a tricky binomial sum

binomial theorembinomial-coefficients

The Question:

$$
\mbox{To prove that:}\quad
\frac{3!}{2(n+3)} = \sum_{r=0}^{n}{(-1)^r\frac{\binom{n}{r}}{\binom{r+3}{r}}}
$$

My Attempt:

I start off by writing $\sum_{r=0}^{n}{(-1)^r\frac{\binom{n}{r}}{\binom{r+3}{r}}}$ as $\sum_{r=0}^{n}{(-1)^r\frac{n!3!}{(n-r)!(r+3)!}}$.

Now, since there is a term of $3!$ in it, I thought it would be a good idea to convert the term inside the expression to a $\binom{n+3}{r+3}$ term (by multiplying and dividing by $(n+1)(n+2)(n+3)$ i.e.

$\frac{3!}{(n+1)(n+2)(n+3)}\sum_{r=0}^{n}{(-1)^r\frac{(n+3)!}{(n-r)!(r+3)!}}$.

This becomes,

$\frac{3!}{(n+1)(n+2)(n+3)}\sum_{r=0}^{n}{(-1)^r\binom{n+3}{r+3}}$

Beyond this, I absolutely have no clue. I have worked at this for hours but I still can't seem to get an alternative to this method so, I tried sticking to it but unfortunately, I couldn't come up with anything. I just can't seem to figure out what I can do to further simplify this expression!!Any hint on how to progress will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Best Answer

Start from $$ \frac{3!}{(n+1)(n+2)(n+3)}\sum_{r=0}^{n}(-1)^r \binom{n+3}{r+3} $$Reindex: $$ =\frac{3!}{(n+1)(n+2)(n+3)}\sum_{r=3}^{n+3}(-1)^{r-3} \binom{n+3}{r} $$ $$ =\frac{-3!}{(n+1)(n+2)(n+3)}\sum_{r=3}^{n+3}(-1)^{r} \binom{n+3}{r} $$Now add and subtract the terms $0\leq r\leq 2$: $$ =\frac{-3!}{(n+1)(n+2)(n+3)}\left(\sum_{r=0}^{n+3}(-1)^{r} \binom{n+3}{r}-\sum_{r=0}^{2}(-1)^{r} \binom{n+3}{r}\right) $$The binomial theorem graciously takes care of the first series for us, and then the result falls out: $$ =\frac{3!}{(n+1)(n+2)(n+3)}\left(0+\sum_{r=0}^{2}(-1)^{r} \binom{n+3}{r}\right) $$ $$ =\frac{3!}{(n+1)(n+2)(n+3)}\cdot \frac{(n+1)(n+2)}{2} = \frac{3}{n+3} $$