Consider a triangle with sides , and . Divide each side to number of equal parts. Then connect each dividing point to the opposite vertex with a line segment. Let be the sum of the squares of these line segments' lengths. Is rational or irrational?
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If S A , S B , S C are the sums of the squares of the segments emanating from A , B , C respectively, then S A = j = 1 ∑ n − 1 [ ( n j a ) 2 + c 2 − n 2 j a c cos B ] = j = 0 ∑ n − 1 [ n 2 j 2 a 2 + c 2 − n j ( a 2 + c 2 − b 2 ) ] = j = 1 ∑ n − 1 [ n 2 j ( j − n ) a 2 + n j b 2 + n n − j c 2 ] using the Cosine Rule several times. Similar formulae can be found for S B , S C . Thus S = S A + S B + S C = ( a 2 + b 2 + c 2 ) j = 1 ∑ n − 1 ( n 2 j 2 − n j + n j + n n − j ) = 6 n ( 5 n − 1 ) ( n − 1 ) ( a 2 + b 2 + c 2 ) and hence a 2 + b 2 + c 2 S = 6 n ( 5 n − 1 ) ( n − 1 ) is always rational.