TITLE: highest power of prime $p$ dividing $\binom{m+n}{n}$
QUESTION [5 upvotes]: How to prove the theorem stated here.

Theorem. (Kummer, 1854) Let $p$ be a prime. The highest power of $p$ that divides the binomial coefficient $\binom{m+n}{n}$ is equal to the number of "carries" when adding $m$ and $n$ in base $p$.

So far, I know if $m+n$ can be expanded in base power as 
$$m+n= a_0 + a_1 p + \dots +a_k p^k$$
and $m$ have to coefficients $\{ b_0 , b_1 , \dots b_i\}$ and $n$ can be expanded with coefficients $\{c_0, c_1 ,\dots , c_j\}$ in base $p$ then the highest power of prime that divides $\binom{m+n}{n}$ can be expressed as 
$$e = \frac{(b_0  + b_1 + \dots b_i )+ (c_0  + c_1 + \dots c_j )-(a_0  + a_1 + \dots a_k )}{p-1}$$
It follows from here page number $4$. But how does it relate to the number of carries? I am not being able to connect. Perhaps I am not understanding something very fundamental about addition.

REPLY [6 votes]: Rubbing the remaining brain cells together real hard did bring to the surface the following argument that generalizes Kummer's Theorem to multinomial coefficients.
Let the base-$p$ expansions of non-negative integers $n_i, i=1,2,\ldots,k$ and $n=\sum_{i=1}^kn_i$ be
$$
n_i=\sum_{j=0}^\infty b_{i,j}p^j,\qquad n=\sum_{j=0}^\infty a_jp^j.
$$
Consider the multinomial coefficient
$$
{n\choose n_1,n_2,\ldots,n_k}=\frac{n!}{n_1!n_2!\cdots n_k!}.
$$
As in the case of binomial coefficients (write the multinomial coefficient as a product of binomial coefficients in the usual way) we see that the highest power, $p^e$, dividing the multinomial coefficient is determined by the formula
$$
e=\frac{\sum_{i=1}^k\sum_j b_{i,j}-\sum_j a_j}{p-1}.\qquad(*)
$$
Assume that we are doing the grade school addition of the sum $n_1+n_2+\cdots+n_k=n$. Let the carry at position $j$, $j=0,1,\ldots$, be $c_j$. Because we are dealing with integers, there is no initial carry, so we declare $c_{-1}=0$. The addition algorithm for the digit at position $j$ amounts to the equation
$$
\sum_{i=1}^kb_{i,j}+c_{j-1}=pc_j+a_j,
$$
or, equivalently, to the equation
$$
\left(\sum_{i=1}^kb_{i,j}\right)-a_j=pc_j-c_{j-1}
$$
that holds for all $j\ge0$.
Adding all these equations together shows that numerator in the formula $(*)$ for $e$ is
$$
\begin{aligned}
\sum_{i=1}^k\sum_j b_{i,j}-\sum_j a_j&=\sum_{j=0}^{j_{MAX}}(pc_j-c_{j-1})\\
&=pc_{j_{MAX}}+\sum_{j=0}^{j_{MAX}-1}(p-1)c_j-c_{-1}\\
&=(p-1)\sum_jc_j,
\end{aligned}
$$
because clearly at the most significant digit there will be no further carry, $c_{j_{MAX}}=0$, and because $c_{-1}=0$.
Thus we can rewrite formula $(*)$ to read
$$
e=\sum_j c_j.
$$
In other words $e$ equals the total carry $\sum_j c_j$.