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values of $A+B+C+D$ if $C=\frac{(2A+B+D)BD}{A^2-BD}$

A triangle is divided by two cevians into four regions of integer areas $A,B,C,D$.

Triangle divided by two cevians into four regions of integer areas A,B,C,D

What are the possible values of the area of the triangle ($A+B+C+D$)?

Expressing the question in terms of an equation

To find the relationship among $A,B,C,D$, split the region with area $C$ into regions of areas $x$ and $y$, as shown.

Triangle divided, by two cevians plus another line segment from the intersection of the cevians to a vertex of the triangle, into five regions A,B,D,x,y

Considering the triangles with base along the red cevian gives $\frac{A}{D}=\frac{B+y}{x}$.

Considering the triangles with base along the green cevian gives $\frac{A}{B}=\frac{D+x}{y}$.

Solving for $x$ and $y$ gives $x=\frac{ABD+BD^2}{A^2-BD}$ and $y=\frac{ABD+B^2D}{A^2-BD}$, so $C=x+y=\frac{(2A+B+D)BD}{A^2-BD}$.

So my question is:

If $C=\frac{(2A+B+D)BD}{A^2-BD}$ where $A,B,C,D\in\mathbb{Z}^+$, what are the possible values of $A+B+C+D$?

Context

Every New Year, I give my students a geometry puzzle like the following.

"The numbers in the (not-to-scale) diagram below are areas. What is the total area of the triangle?"

Triangle divided into two cevians into four regions of areas 54, 96, 27 and blank

The area of the unmarked region must be $1848$, so the area of the triangle is $54+96+1848+27=2025$.

I began doing this in $2020$, and every year since then I have been able to create such a puzzle. That is, I could always find (using Excel) four integer areas such that their sum equals the number of the new year:

  • $180+729+1089+22=2020$
  • $94+94+1755+78=2021$
  • $674+337+674+337=2022$
  • $289+578+1088+68=2023$
  • $46+46+1890+42=2024$
  • $54+96+1848+27=2025$

But I have found that it is impossible to create such a puzzle for $2026$, after an exhaustive search.

Now I wonder, what are the possible areas of the triangle? Do they follow a simple pattern?


Edit

I found that OEIS sequence A208770 lists the smallest $60$ possible areas of the triangle, but gives no insight about the pattern.

This sequence is very similar to the first $60$ish terms of two other OEIS sequences:

  • A278638, which lists numbers $n$ such that $1/n$ is a difference of Egyptian fractions with all denominators less than $n$. A278638 contains three terms ($33,68,76$) not found in A208770.
  • A219095 which lists numbers $k$ such that if $b/c>1$ is the least reduced fraction using divisors $b$ and $c$ of $k$, then $c>1$). A219095 is missing three terms ($44,52,136$) found in A208770.
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  • $\begingroup$ $2026$ is of the form $2p$, where $p=2013$ is a prime. A naive guess is that the possible areas are all positive integers except those of the form $2p$, where $p$ is a prime. (maybe with some additional conditions) :) [Of course, this is probably wrong] $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday
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    $\begingroup$ @Dan: How exhaustive is your exhaustive search? That is, what range of $A$, $B$, $C$, $D$ values have you tested? $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday
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    $\begingroup$ I'll leave it as a comment: Let me start with the easiest case where $A=2k$ and $B=D=k$, with $k\in\mathbb Z^+$. We can verify that in this case $$C=\frac{(2A+B+D)BD}{A^2-BD}=\frac{6\times k^3}{3\times k^2}=2k.$$ Hence, $$A+B+C+D=6k$$ and any year divisible by $6$ can be realized (as 2022). $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday
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    $\begingroup$ @Blue In my exhaustive search for $A+B+C+D=2026$, I checked all combinations of $1\le A\le 2026$ and $1\le D\le 2026$ (assuming $C=\frac{(2A+B+D)BD}{A^2-BD}$). There were no integer solutions for $B$. $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday
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    $\begingroup$ @Andre More generally, you can always multiply $A$, $B$, $C$, and $D$ by the same value to show that any multiple of a realizable number is also realizable. $\endgroup$ Commented 22 hours ago

2 Answers 2

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Not a complete answer, but here is an $O(Nd(N^2))$ algorithm to find all solutions to $$(2A+B+C+D)BD=A^2C$$ with $A,B,C,D$ positive integers with sum $N$. Here $d(N^2)$ counts the number of divisors of $N^2$.

We rewrite the equation as $(A+N)BD=A^2C$. We get $A^2C\equiv0\mod A+N$, so since $A^2\equiv N^2\mod A+N$, we get $N^2C\equiv0\mod A+N$. It follows that $A+N=xy$ for some $x|N^2$ and $y|C$.

We thus iterate all triples $(x,y,z)$ of positive integers with $x|N^2$ and with $A,C\geq1$ and $A+C+2\leq N$ for $A=xy-N$ and $C=yz$. Note that the requirements $N+1\leq xy\leq 2N$ and $yz\leq N$ make sure that there are $O(N)$ possible integers $y,z$ for each possible $x$, so there are $O(Nd(N^2))$ possible triples.

We find $B+D=N-A-C=\beta$ and $BD=A^2C/(A+N)=\gamma$, so $(X-B)(X-D)=X^2-\beta X+\gamma$. For $\Delta=\beta^2-4\gamma$, we find that $B$ and $D$ are $(\beta+\sqrt\Delta)/2$ and $(\beta-\sqrt\Delta)/2$ in any order.

We thus simply need to check if $\Delta$ is a perfect square. If $\Delta=k^2$, note that $\beta$ and $k$ have the same parity, so since $\Delta<\beta^2$, it follows that $(B,D)=((\beta+k)/2,(\beta-k)/2)$ and vice versa always give valid solutions.

The following is an implementation in Python:

from math import isqrt

def solve(N):
    ds = [N]
    for d in range(1,N):
        if (N*N) % d == 0:
            ds += [d, N*N//d]
    solutions = []
    for x in ds:
        for y in range(max((N+x)//x,1), (2*N-2)//(x+1)+1):
            A = x*y-N
            for C in range(y, N-A-1, y):
                b, c = N-A-C, A*A*C//(A+N)
                d = b*b-4*c
                if d < 0:
                    continue
                k = isqrt(d)
                if k*k != d:
                    continue
                B, D = (b+k)//2, (b-k)//2
                solutions += [[A,B,C,D]]
                if k != 0:
                    solutions += [[A,D,C,B]]
    return solutions

For $N\leq5000$, there are $2753$ values of $N$ with a solution. It appears as though you got a very lucky streak with $2020,\ldots,2025$, because streaks of length $6$ are evidently quite rare. Looking through which values of $N$ do or do not have a solution seems to give me little insight, but anyone else is free to try and run this program and look for themselves. I will note that generally numbers with more divisors seem to have more solutions than numbers with few divisors, which makes sense, since there are more options for $x$.

In particular, let me prove for $N$ prime that a solution can not exist. We get $x\in\{1,N,N^2\}$. If $x=1$, then, since $y\leq N$, we have $A=xy-N\leq0$, a contradiction. If $x=N$ or $x=N^2$, then $A=xy-N$ is a multiple of $N$, a contradiction.

As a final note, we have $\sum_{n=1}^{N}d(n^2)=O(N\log^2N)$, so this gives an $O(N^2\log^2N)$ algorithm of finding all solutions with $A+B+C+D\leq N$. See Asymptotics of $\sum_{k=1}^nd(k^s)$, the sum of the divisor counts of the squares, cubes, etc.

EDIT: The following is a proof that any solution with $N=2p$ for $p$ prime must have $N=6$.

We get $x\in\{1,2,4,p,2p,4p,p^2,2p^2,4p^2\}$. Again, if $x=1$, then $A\leq0$, and if $N|x$, then $N|A$, so we only need to consider $x\in\{2,4,p,p^2\}$.

First, consider $x=p^2$. We get $A=(yp-2)p$, so we need $yp-2=1$, the only solution to which is $y=1$ and $p=3$, giving $N=6$.

Next, consider $x=p$. We get $A=(y-2)p$, so we need $y=3$. Then $\beta=p-3z$ and $\gamma=pz$, so $\Delta=p^2-10pz+9z^2=k^2$ for some integer $k\geq0$. We get $(p-10z)p=(k-3z)(k+3z)$. One of $k-3z$ and $k+3z$ must be divisible by $p$, and the product is $(p-10z)p<p^2$, so the other is less than $p$. Note that $\Delta=(p-9z)(p-z)\geq0$ gives $9z\leq p$, so $k-3z$ and $k+3z$ differ by less than $p$. It follows that $k+3z=p$ and $k-3z=p-10z$, which implies $z=0$, a contradiction.

Next, consider $x=2$. We get $A=2d$ for $d=y-p$, so we need $y>p$, and thus $z=1$. Then $\beta=p-3d$ and $\gamma=2d^2$, so $\Delta=p^2-6pd+d^2=k^2$ for some integer $k\geq0$. We get $(p-6d)p=(k-d)(k+d)$. One of $k-d$ and $k+d$ must be divisible by $p$, and the product is $(p-6d)p<p^2$, so the other is less than $p$. Note that $\Delta\geq0$ gives $(3+2\sqrt2)d\leq p$, so $k-d$ and $k+d$ differ by less than $p$. It follows that $k+d=p$ and $k-d=p-6d$, which implies $d=0$, a contradiction.

Finally, the most difficult case is $x=4$. We get $A=2(2y-p)$, so we need $y>p/2$, and thus $z<4$. Then $\beta=4p-(4+z)y$ and $\gamma=z(2y-p)^2$, so $$\Delta=(16-4z)p^2-(32-8z)py+(16-8z+z^2)y^2=k^2$$ for some integer $k\geq0$. We consider the three cases $z\in\{1,2,3\}$. We get $$z=1\rightarrow\Delta=12p^2-24py+9y^2=k^2,$$ $$z=2\rightarrow\Delta=8p^2-16py+4y^2=k^2,$$ $$z=3\rightarrow\Delta=4p^2-8py+y^2=k^2.$$

We start with the case $z=3$. We get $4p(p-8y)=(k-y)(k+y)$. One of $k-y$ and $k+y$ must be divisible by $p$. Note that $yz=C<N$ gives $y<2p/3$, so $k-y$ and $k+y$ differ by at most $4p/3<2p$. Furthermore, their product is $4p(p-8y)<0$, so $k+y$ is positive and $k-y$ is negative. It follows that either $k+y=p$ and $k-y=4(p-8y)$ or $k+y=4(8y-p)$ and $k-y=-p$. In either case, their difference is $2y=32y-3p$, so $3p=30y$, which is impossible, since $p$ is prime.

Next is the case $z=2$. Note that $k$ must be even, so we can assume $2p^2-4py+y^2=k^2$, giving $2p(p-2y)=(k-y)(k+y)$. One of $k-y$ and $k+y$ must be divisible by $p$. Note that $yz=C<N$ gives $y<p$, so $k-y$ and $k+y$ differ by less than $2p$. Furthermore, their product is $2p(p-y)<0$, so $k+y$ is positive and $k-y$ is negative. It follows that either $k+y=p$ and $k-y=2(p-2y)$ or $k+y=2(2y-p)$ and $k-y=-p$. In either case, their difference is $2y=4y-p$, so $p=2y$. This is only possible if $p=2$, but there are no solutions for $N=4$.

Finally, we consider the case $z=1$. We get $12p(p-2y)=(k-3y)(k+3y)$. One of $k-3y$ and $k+3y$ must be divisible by $p$. Note that $\Delta=3(2p-y)(2p-3y)\geq0$ gives $3y\leq2p$, so $k-3y$ and $k+3y$ differ by at most $4p$. Furthermore, their product is $12p(p-2y)<0$, so $k+3y$ is positive and $k-3y$ is negative. Whichever is a multiple of $p$ must thus be less than $4p$ in absolute value. We get three cases again:

If $k+3y=p$ and $k-3y=12(p-2y)$ or $k+3y=12(2y-p)$ and $k-3y=-p$, then their difference is $6y=24y-11p$, so $11p=18y$, a contradiction.

If $k+3y=2p$ and $k-3y=6(p-2y)$ or $k+3y=6(2y-p)$ and $k-3y=-2p$, then their difference is $6y=12y-4p$, so $4p=6y$, so $p=3$, giving $N=6$ again.

Finally, if $k+3y=3p$ and $k-3y=4(p-2y)$ or $k+3y=4(2y-p)$ and $k-3y=-3p$, then their difference is $6y=8y-p$, so $p=2y$. This is only possible if $p=2$, but there are no solutions for $N=4$.

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    $\begingroup$ Let me just comment that I do not think there is a simple criterion for which $N$ admit a solution. I think it is probably possible to improve the algorithm to something sublinear, though $O(N^{1/2-\varepsilon})$ seems unlikely. Beyond that, you can come up with sufficient and necessary conditions. But I don't think you can do much better than that. Feel free to prove me wrong, though! $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday
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    $\begingroup$ Faster algorithm idea: Note that $A\geq0$ and $C\leq N$ give $z\leq x$, and $A\leq N$ gives $y\leq2N/x$, so for any $x|N^2$, we have $O(\sqrt N)$ options for either $z$ or $y$. Let $N^2=xr$. Given $z$, rewrite $\Delta=k^2$ as $(2N-(x-z)y+k)(2N-(x-z)y-k)=4rz$ and try all divisor pairs of $4rz$. Given $y$, rewrite $y^2\Delta=y^2k^2$ as $(xy^2-2Ny+2r-y^2z+ky)(xy^2-2Ny+2r-y^2z-ky)=4r(xy^2-2Ny+r)$ and try all divisor pairs of $4r(xy^2-2Ny+r)$. $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday
  • $\begingroup$ FYI, I edited my question after I found some related sequences on OEIS. $\endgroup$ Commented 11 hours ago
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Here's a quick-ish proof @SmileyCraft's result that the total area can be $2p$, for odd prime $p$, only if $p=3$. ("If" is satisfied by $(a,b,d)=(2,1,1)$.) In particular, the total area cannot be $2026=2\cdot 1013$.

First, as noted in my comment to the question, given positive-integer areas $a$, $b$, $d$, the total area is $$t := a+b+c+d = \frac{a(a+b)(a+d)}{a^2-bd} \tag1$$ So, if $t=2p$, then at least one of $a$, $a+b$, or $a+d$ must be divisible by $p$; moreover, since these quantities represent proper sub-areas of total area $2p$, "divisible by $p$" means "equal to $p$" (and at most one of $a$, $b$, $d$ can be "divisible by $p$"). Let's consider cases:

  • $a=p$. Substituting this, and $t=2p$, into $(1)$ yields $$p(p-b-d) = 3 bd \quad\to\quad p\mid 3 \quad\to\quad p = 3 \tag2$$ We can deduce further that $(a,b,d)=(3,1,1)$.

  • $a+b=p$ (likewise, $a+d=p$). Substituting $b=p-a$ and $t=2p$ into $(1)$ yields $$2 d p=a(a+d) \quad\to\quad p\mid a+d\quad\to\quad a+d=p \quad\to\quad 2p=3a \quad\to\quad p=3\tag3$$ We find in particular, that $(a,b,d)=(2,1,1)$.

Done! $\square$

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    $\begingroup$ Very nice! This seems to generalize to showing that any solution $(a,b,d)$ for $t=xp$ with $p$ prime and $x^2\leq p$ must be of the form $(pa',pb',pd')$ with $(a',b',d')$ a solution for $t=x$. $\endgroup$ Commented 22 hours ago
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    $\begingroup$ FYI, I edited my question after I found some related sequences on OEIS. $\endgroup$ Commented 10 hours ago

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