Suppose ABC is a triangle with circumcenter O and orthocenter H such that A,B,C,O, and H are all on distinct points with integer coordinates. What is the second smallest possible value of the circumradius of ABC ?
A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.
Solution
Assume without loss of generality that the circumcenter is at the origin. By well known properties of the Euler line, the centroid G is such that O,G, and H are collinear, with G in between O and H, such that GH=2GO. Thus, since G=31(A+B+C), and we are assuming O is the origin, we have H=A+B+C. This means that as long as A,B, and C are integer points, H will be as well. However, since H needs to be distinct from A,B, and C, we must have △ A B C not be a right triangle, since in right triangles, the orthocenter is the vertex where the right angle is. Now, if a circle centered at the origin has any integer points, it will have at least four integer points. (If it has a point of the form (a, 0),thenitwillalsohave(-a, 0),(0, a),and(0,-a).Ifithasapointoftheform(a, b),witha, b = 0, it will have each point of the form ( ± a, ± b).)Butinanyofthesecaseswherethereareonlyfourpoints,anytrianglewhichcanbemadefromthosepointsisarighttriangle.Thusweneedthecircumcircletocontainatleasteightlatticepoints.Thesmallestradiusthisoccursatis12+22=5, which contains the eight points (±1,±2) and (±2,±1). We get at least one valid triangle with this circumradius: A=(−1,2),B=(1,2),C=(2,1) The next valid circumradius is 12+32=10 which has the valid triangle A=(−1,3),B=(1,3),C=(3,1)$
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