Consider the set of all (non-degenerate) triangles that meet the following two conditions:
(i) the side lengths are consecutive positive integers;
(ii) the area is integer valued.
What is the area of the third-smallest triangle in ?
(Credit goes to the mysterious falzoon for this question.)
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If the sides are n − 1 , n , n + 1 , then the area is 4 n 3 ( n 2 − 4 ) by Heron's formula. Clearly n must be even, say n = 2 a . Then we get an area of a 3 ( a 2 − 1 ) . So a 2 − 1 = 3 b 2 for some integer b and the area is 3 a b . The first three solutions of the Pell equation a 2 − 3 b 2 = 1 are ( a , b ) = ( 2 , 1 ) , ( 7 , 4 ) , ( 2 6 , 1 5 ) , which leads to n = 4 , 1 4 , 5 2 , … . The third triangle has area 3 ⋅ 2 6 ⋅ 1 5 = 1 1 7 0 .