A091908 Number of interior intersection points made by the straight line segments connecting the edges of an equilateral triangle with the n-1 points resulting from a subdivision of the sides into n equal pieces, counting coinciding intersection points only once.

0, 1, 12, 13, 48, 49, 108, 109, 192, 193, 300, 301, 432, 433, 576, 589, 768, 769, 972, 961, 1200, 1201, 1452, 1405, 1728, 1729, 2028, 2029, 2352, 2341, 2700, 2701, 3072, 3073, 3444, 3469, 3888, 3889, 4332, 4297, 4800, 4777, 5292, 5293, 5724, 5809, 6348

Offset: 1

Author

Hugo Pfoertner, Feb 19 2004

Keywords

• nonn

Comments

In a drawing the distinction between simple and multiple intersection points may be difficult due to near-coincidences. E.g. there are no coincident intersections for n=7.

Note that 3 divides a(2k)-1 and a(2k+1). - T. D. Noe, Jun 29 2005

The interior intersection points only can be the result of the concurrency of 2 or 3 segments by construction. It is easy to see that the total number of 2-intersections N2 is 3*(n-1)^2 (which includes every 3-intersection as two 2-intersections) by symmetry. But we are interested in excluding the concurrency of more than 2. By Ceva's theorem necessary and sufficient condition for 3 concurrent segments that connect the edges with the opposite side, the number of 3-intersections N3 is the same as the number of (i,j,k) belonging to [1,n-1]x[1,n-1]x[1,n-1] such that (i/(n-i))*(j/(n-j))*(k/(n-k))=1. Thus the terms a(n)=N2-2*N3. - Herman Jamke (hermanjamke(AT)fastmail.fm), Oct 26 2006

If n is even then a(n) < 3*(n-1)^2; if n is odd then a(n) = 3*(n-1)^2 except for n in A332378. - N. J. A. Sloane, Feb 14 2020

Examples

			a(3)=12 because the 3*2 line segments intersect each other in 12 distinct points (see pictures given at link)
a(4)=13 because the 27 intersections form 6 two line intersection points and 7 three line intersection points.
		

Links

• Hugo Pfoertner, Table of n, a(n) for n = 1..1000
• Hugo Pfoertner, Visualization of diagonal intersections in an equilateral triangle.
• Index entries for sequences formed by drawing all diagonals in regular polygon

Crossrefs

Cf. A091910 = radial locations of intersection points, A092098 = number of regions that the line segments cut the triangle into, A006561.

For the basic properties of the underlying graph, see A092098 (cells), A331782 (vertices), A331782 (vertices), A332376 & A332377 (edges). - N. J. A. Sloane, Feb 14 2020

Programs

PARI

for(n=1,70,conc=0;for(i=1,n-1,for(j=1,n-1,for(k=1,n-1,if(i*j*k/((n-i)*(n-j)*(n-k))==1,conc++))));print1(3*(n-1)^2-2*conc,",")) \\ Herman Jamke (hermanjamke(AT)fastmail.fm), Oct 26 2006

Extensions

More terms from T. D. Noe, Jun 29 2005

More terms from Herman Jamke (hermanjamke(AT)fastmail.fm), Oct 26 2006