So many circles...

Algebra Level 3

What is the maximum number of intersection points that can be made with 1000000000 circles?

199999999000000000 999999999000000000 1000000000000000000 999999999999999990 9999999999000000000 9999999990000000000 99999999900000000000 99999999990000000000

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2 solutions

Caleb Townsend
Apr 9, 2015

Each circle can intersect another circle a maximum of two times. So avoiding double counting, the maximum number of points of intersection with n n circles is 2 × T n 1 = n × ( n 1 ) 2\times T_{n-1} = n\times (n-1) where T n T_n is the n n th triangular number. So this is just a problem of counting trailing zeros now. 1000000000 1000000000 has 9 9 trailing zeros, so the answer will have 9 9 nines followed be 9 9 trailing zeros.

Andrew The
Apr 8, 2015

all ya got to do is n(n-1) where n is the number of circles

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