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United States geometry
Problem
We say a nondegenerate triangle whose angles have measures is quirky if there exists integers , not all zero, such that Find all integers for which a triangle with side lengths is quirky.
Solution
The answer is . We first introduce a variant of the th Chebyshev polynomials in the following lemma (which is standard, and easily shown by induction).
Lemma For each there exists , monic for and with degree , such that The first few are , , , .
Suppose the angles of the triangle are , so the law of cosines implies that
Claim — The triangle is quirky iff there exists not both zero such that Proof. If there are integers for which , then we have that , whence it follows that we may take and (noting implies the absurd ). Conversely, given such and with , then it follows that for some , so the triangle is quirky.
If , then by rational root theorem on it follows must be an integer which occurs only when (recall ). Similarly we may discard the case .
Thus in what follows assume and . Then, from the fact that and are nonconstant monic polynomials, we find
Corollary If works, then when and are written as fractions in lowest terms, the denominators have the same set of prime factors.
But divides 2, and , divide 3. So we only have three possibilities:
and for some . This is only possible if . Here and , and indeed .
and for some , which implies . Here and , and indeed .
* and for some , which implies . Here and , and indeed .
Finally, works because the triangle is right, completing the solution.
Lemma For each there exists , monic for and with degree , such that The first few are , , , .
Suppose the angles of the triangle are , so the law of cosines implies that
Claim — The triangle is quirky iff there exists not both zero such that Proof. If there are integers for which , then we have that , whence it follows that we may take and (noting implies the absurd ). Conversely, given such and with , then it follows that for some , so the triangle is quirky.
If , then by rational root theorem on it follows must be an integer which occurs only when (recall ). Similarly we may discard the case .
Thus in what follows assume and . Then, from the fact that and are nonconstant monic polynomials, we find
Corollary If works, then when and are written as fractions in lowest terms, the denominators have the same set of prime factors.
But divides 2, and , divide 3. So we only have three possibilities:
and for some . This is only possible if . Here and , and indeed .
and for some , which implies . Here and , and indeed .
* and for some , which implies . Here and , and indeed .
Finally, works because the triangle is right, completing the solution.
Final answer
n = 3, 4, 5, 7
Techniques
Triangle trigonometryTrigonometryChebyshev polynomialsIrreducibility: Rational Root Theorem, Gauss's Lemma, EisensteinGreatest common divisors (gcd)