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Alcuin's sequence

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Wcherowi (talk | contribs) at 02:36, 25 April 2016 (Reverted 2 edits by 71.244.147.252 (talk): No, that would change the coefficient sequence and it would no longer satisfy the integer sided triangle property. (TW)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

In mathematics, Alcuin's sequence, named after Alcuin of York, is the sequence of coefficients of the power-series expansion of:[1]

The sequence begins with these integers:[1][2]

0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 2, 1, 3, 2, 4, 3, 5, 4, 7, 5, 8, 7, 10, 8, 12, 10, 14, 12, 16, 14, 19, 16, 21

The nth term is the number of triangles with integer sides and perimeter n.[2] It is also the number of triangles with distinct integer sides and perimeter n + 6, i.e. number of triples (abc) such that 1 ≤ a < b < c < a + b, a + b + c = n + 6.

If one deletes the three leading zeros, then it is the number of ways in which n empty casks, n casks half-full of wine and n full casks can be distributed to three persons in such a way that each one gets the same number of casks and the same amount of wine.

References

  1. ^ a b Weisstein, Eric W. "Alcuin's Sequence". MathWorld.
  2. ^ a b Sloane, N. J. A. (ed.). "Sequence A005044 (Alcuin's sequence)". The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. OEIS Foundation.