A273724 Place n equally-spaced points around a circle, labeled 0,1,2,...,n-1. For each i = 0..n-1 such that 3i != i mod n, draw an (undirected) chord from i to (3i mod n). Then a(n) is the total number of distinct chords.
0, 0, 0, 2, 1, 4, 4, 6, 3, 8, 8, 10, 9, 12, 12, 14, 11, 16, 16, 18, 17, 20, 20, 22, 19, 24, 24, 26, 25, 28, 28, 30, 27, 32, 32, 34, 33, 36, 36, 38, 35, 40, 40, 42, 41, 44, 44, 46, 43, 48, 48, 50, 49, 52, 52, 54, 51, 56, 56, 58, 57, 60, 60, 62, 59, 64, 64, 66, 65, 68, 68, 70, 67, 72, 72, 74, 73, 76, 76, 78, 75, 80, 80
Offset: 0
Keywords
Links
- Brooke Logan and N. J. A. Sloane, Table of n, a(n) for n = 0..10000
- Kival Ngaokrajang, Illustration of initial terms
- Burkard Polster, Times Tables, Mandelbrot and the Heart of Mathematics, Mathologer video (2015).
Formula
a(n) = n-1 if n>0 is odd, n-2 if n == +-2 (mod 8), n-3 if n == 4 (mod 8), and n-5 if n == 0 (mod 8). These formulas are easily established by observing that the chord at i is missing if 2i == 0 mod n, and the chords starting at i and at 3i coincide if 8i == 0 mod n. The formulas then imply that the g.f. is 4+x^2/(1-x)^2-(4+x^2+2*x^4+x^6)/(1-x^8), which can be rewritten as (5*x^63*x^5+2*x^4+3*x^2-x+2)*x^3/((1-x)*(1-x^8)). (This g.f. was conjectured by Colin Barker.) - Brooke Logan and N. J. A. Sloane, Jun 23 2016
a(n) = a(n-1)+a(n-8)-a(n-9) for n>9. - Colin Barker, May 29 2016 (This follows from the above g.f. - Brooke Logan and N. J. A. Sloane)
Extensions
Definition edited by N. J. A. Sloane, Jun 23 2016