Interesting

Let S S denote the sum of the coefficients in the expansion of ( a + b + c ) 17 { (a+b+c) }^{ 17 } .

Submit your answer as the sum of the last three digits of S S .

Clarification : if your answer is 12345667 then write 6 + 6 + 7 = 19 6+6+7=19 as your answer.


The answer is 10.

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2 solutions

James Pohadi
Jun 18, 2016

To get the sum of coefficients in the expansion of ( a + b + c ) n (a+b+c)^{n} , we can substitute a = 1 a=1 , b = 1 b=1 , and c = 1 c=1 to ( a + b + c ) n (a+b+c)^{n}

It is equal to ( 1 + 1 + 1 ) n = 3 n (1+1+1)^{n}=3^{n}

Then, the sum of coefficients in the expansion of ( a + b + c ) 17 (a+b+c)^{17} is 3 17 = 129140 163 3^{17}=129140 \color{#3D99F6}{163}

S = 1 + 6 + 3 = 10 S=1+6+3=\boxed{10}

Achal Jain
Jun 16, 2016

The sum of the coefficients in expansion of

( a + b + c ) n { (a+b+c) }^{ n } = 3 n { 3 }^{ n } . The rest is clear.

 3^17= 129140163. Thus answer is 10.

I got it in same way....but can you please help me out on how to solve the same question if a,b or c had some coefficients...

Samarth K - 4 years, 12 months ago

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I'm not sure either I'm hoping someone can explain why substituting values for a,b, and c allows u to solve this problem

Ashish Sacheti - 4 years, 12 months ago

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What I meant was how to solve this question if it was ( 2a + 4b + 7c )^n Or any other coefficients of a,b or c

Samarth K - 4 years, 12 months ago

Samarth K I am not an expert on this but i will try to give a sophisticated answer to the full extent of my knowledge.

Suppose you have to find the sum of coefficients in ( 2 a + 4 b + 7 c ) 5 { (2a+4b+7c) }^{ 5 } . Then First factor it in 5 terms

that is (2a+4b+7c)*(2a+4b+7c).... 5 Times.

Now For ease (2a+4b+7c)=(a+a+b+b+b+b+c+c+c+c+c+c+c). Which means total objects are 2+4+7=13

Now total way of taking one object out of 13 objects is

1 13 C _{ 1 }^{ 13 }{ C } . Now you have to take it 5 times (raised to power 5) as these are mutually exclusive.

Therefore your answer would be 12^5=248832

Achal Jain - 4 years, 12 months ago

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But what about 'a' being repeated twice 'b' being repeated 4 times and 'c' being repeated 7 times? Though I am not sure about it...

Samarth K - 4 years, 12 months ago

Think simply, if we expand this we will get many terms involving a,b,c and there will be coefficients attached to them. So if put a,b,c all equal to 1 don't you think we will get the sum of coefficients?

Kushagra Sahni - 4 years, 12 months ago

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I got that....but what I wanted to know was how to solve this question if a,b or c had some coefficients themselves... in that case replacing a,b and c with 1 won't work right?

Samarth K - 4 years, 12 months ago

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