[Math] Exploring Properties of Pascal’s Triangle $\pmod 2$

combinatoricscontest-mathnumber theory

Moderator Note: This question is from a contest which ended 1 Dec 2012.

Consider Pascal's Triangle taken $\pmod 2$:

First few rows of Pascal's Triangle modulo 2

For simplicity, we will call a finite string of 0's and 1's proper if it occurs in one of the rows of this modified Pascal's triangle. (for example, 0 (row 3) and 10001 (row 5) are proper).

I've been exploring proper strings of length $n$. My professor told me it is possible to

i) characterize explicitly all proper strings of length $n$

and ii) Find an explicit formula for the number of proper strings of length $n$.

But I cannot figure out how to even begin either parts. This is a very interesting problem, and I was wondering if someone could help me. Thank you!

Best Answer

(The following was shown to me a few years ago by David Kelly, who used this discovery to generate an approximation of the Sierpinski Triangle by looking at Pascal's Triangle in base 2 -- though the details of this part escape me.)

Let $n \in \mathbb{N}$, and let:

$$F(n) = \textrm{max}\{k \in \mathbb{N} \, \colon \, 2^k \textrm{ divides }n\}.$$

$$B(n) = \textrm{ count of 1s in the base-2 representation of } n.$$

$$P(n) = \textrm{ count of odd numbers in the } n\textrm{th row of Pascal's Triangle.}$$

Proposition: For every $n \in \mathbb{N}$, the following hold:

  1. $F(n) + B(n) = n,$
  2. $P(n) = 2^{B(n)}.$
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