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PROJECT EULER · #0385

Ellipses Inside Triangles

Statement only · UnsolvedOriginal problem ↗

For any triangle T in the plane, it can be shown that there is a unique ellipse with largest area that is completely inside T.

0385_ellipsetriangle.png

For a given n, consider triangles T such that:
- the vertices of T have integer coordinates with absolute value n, and
- the foci1 of the largest-area ellipse inside T are (13,0) and (13,0).
Let A(n) be the sum of the areas of all such triangles.

For example, if n=8, there are two such triangles. Their vertices are (4,3),(4,3),(8,0) and (4,3),(4,3),(8,0), and the area of each triangle is 36. Thus A(8)=36+36=72.

It can be verified that A(10)=252, A(100)=34632 and A(1000)=3529008.

Find A(1000000000).

1The foci (plural of focus) of an ellipse are two points A and B such that for every point P on the boundary of the ellipse, AP+PB is constant.

Write-up coming later

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