Counting all equilateral triangles in {0, 1, , n}3.docVIP

ActaMath.Univ.Comenianae Vol.LXXVII, 1(2008),pp.129–140 129 COUNTING ALL EQUILATERAL TRIANGLES IN {0,1,...,n}3 E. J. IONASCU Abstract. Wedescribeaprocedureofcountingallequilateraltrianglesinthethree dimensional space whose coordinates are allowed only in the set {0,1,...,n} . This sequenceisdenotedherebyET(n)andithastheentryA102698in“TheOn-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences”. The procedure is implemented in Maple and its main idea is based on the results in [3]. Using this we calculated the values ET(n) for n = 1...55 extending previous calculations known for n ≤ 34. Some facts and conjectures about this sequence are stated. The main conjecture raised hereisthat lim lnET(n) exists. n→∞ lnn+1 1. Introduction IfwerestricttheverticesofanequilateraltriangletobeinZ3weobtainatypical elementinET(Z). Itisnotthathardtoseethattherearenosuchtriangleswhose verticesarecontainedinthecoordinate planesoranyotherplaneparalleltoone ofthem. Also, thesidesofatriangleinET(Z)cannotbe ofanarbitrarylength. Ifonesuchtriangleisconsidered,awholefamilyinET(Z)canbegeneratedfrom it with vertices in the same plane. Moreover, we have shown in [3] the following theoremsthatwearegoingtouseinourconstructionhere. → Theorem1.1. Ifthetriangle4OPQ∈ET(Z)withOtheoriginandl=||OP|| then: (i) thepointsP andQarecontainedinaplaneoftheequationax+by+cz=0, where (1) a2+b2+ c 2=3 2 d , a,b,c,d∈Z andl2=2q; (ii) thesidelengthl isoftheform 2(m ?mn+n )withm,n∈Z. p 2 2 Itisimportanttobeabletogenerateallprimitivesolutionsof (1): ReceivedJanuary3,2007; revised September21,2007. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classi?cation. Primary 11B99; Secondary 11D09,11C08. Key words and phrases. diophantineequations;integers.  130 E. J. IONASCU Theorem 1.2. Thefollowing formulaegiveathreeintegerparametersolution of (1): ? ? a=?x2+x2+x2?2x x ?2x x ? 1 2 1 3 3 2 ? 1 2 3 ? ? ? b= x2?x2+x2?2x x ?2x x 1 2 3 2 1 2 (2) ? c = x2+x2?x2?2x x ?2x x ? 1 2 3 3 1 3 ? ? ? 2 1 2 2 2 3 ? d= x +x +x , x ,x ,x ∈Z