Binomial Coefficient with Zero

Theorem

 * $\forall r \in \R: \dbinom r 0 = 1$

The usual presentation of this result is:
 * $\forall n \in \N: \dbinom n 0 = 1$

Proof
From the definition of binomial coefficients:


 * $\dbinom r k = \dfrac {r^{\underline k} } {k!}$ for $k \ge 0$

where $r^{\underline k}$ is the falling factorial.

In turn:


 * $\ds x^{\underline k} := \prod_{j \mathop = 0}^{k - 1} \paren {x - j}$

But when $k = 0$, we have:
 * $\ds \prod_{j \mathop = 0}^{-1} \paren {x - j} = 1$

as $\ds \prod_{j \mathop = 0}^{-1} \paren {x - j}$ is a vacuous product.

From the definition of the factorial we have that $0! = 1$.

Thus:


 * $\forall r \in \R: \dbinom r 0 = 1$

Integer Coefficients
This is completely compatible with the result for natural numbers:
 * $\forall n \in \N: \dbinom n 0 = 1$

Also see

 * Particular Values of Binomial Coefficients for other similar results.