Concept understanding — Binomial Theorem for Negative or Fractional Index
The ordinary Binomial Theorem written with nCr=r!(n−r)!n! only makes sense when n is a non-negative integer, because n! is undefined otherwise. To expand something like (1+x)−4 or (1−x)1/3, the theorem must be restated in a form that never needs n! of n itself: for ∣x∣<1, (1+x)n=1+nx+2!n(n−1)x2+3!n(n−1)(n−2)x3+⋯+r!n(n−1)⋯(n−r+1)xr+⋯, where n can now be any real number — negative, or a fraction, or (as a special case) a positive integer, which is when the series happens to terminate and reduces back to the ordinary finite Binomial Theorem. Two structural differences from the positive-integer case matter a great deal in practice. First, when n is not a positive integer the series never terminates — it has infinitely many terms — and the condition ∣x∣<1 is not optional decoration but the exact requirement that makes that infinite sum converge to a finite value; an exam answer is expected to quote 'first three/four terms', not the whole series. Second, to expand a general (a+b)n (rather than (1+x)n) with ∣b∣<∣a∣, the standard move is to factor out the dominant term, (a+b)n=an(1+ab)n, so the bracket is in the ∣x∣<1-safe form with x=b/a. This machinery is what makes decimal approximation problems tractable — a value like 99, 3126, or (1.02)−5 is rewritten as (A+δ)n with A a perfect power and δ small, expanded to three or four terms, and the remaining infinitely many terms are safely dropped because they are too small to affect the requested number of decimal places.
n=1/3, y=−x in (1+y)n.
✓Final answer
(1−x)1/3=1−3x−9x2−815x3+⋯.
With n=1/3, replace x by −x: term1=31(−x)=−3x. term2=2(1/3)(−2/3)x2=−9x2. term3=6(1/3)(−2/3)(−5/3)⋅(−x3)=610/27⋅(−x3)=−815x3.
✓Final answer
(1−x)1/3=1−3x−9x2−815x3+⋯, for ∣x∣<1.
Substitute n=1/3 and x→−x into the series formula, track signs from the odd power of −x.
Sign errors when the odd-power term (−x)3=−x3 combines with an already-negative coefficient.