Wiki
Wiki

Research notes on every problem, and a library of the papers behind them. Built from the open erdos repository.

Updated


Claim. S. A. Burr, B. Grünbaum and N. J. A. Sloane, The orchard problem, Geometriae Dedicata 2 (1974), no. 4, 397--424 (source card), prove in Theorem 1 that for every n≥3n\ge3 there are nn points, placed on a cubic curve and chosen through its group law, with at least 1+⌊n(n−3)/6⌋1+\lfloor n(n-3)/6\rfloor lines through exactly three of them. A projective transformation moves the points into R2\mathbb R^2 without changing which triples are collinear, so f3(n)≥n2/6−O(n)f_3(n)\ge n^2/6-O(n) in the notation of Problem 669. A line through at least three of the points contains at least three of the (n2)\binom n2 pairs, and no pair lies on two lines, so F3(n)≤n(n−1)/6F_3(n)\le n(n-1)/6. Since f3(n)≤F3(n)f_3(n)\le F_3(n), both f3(n)f_3(n) and F3(n)F_3(n) are n2/6−O(n)n^2/6-O(n), as the site credits to the paper, and

lim⁡n→∞f3(n)n2=lim⁡n→∞F3(n)n2=16.\lim_{n\to\infty}\frac{f_3(n)}{n^2}=\lim_{n\to\infty}\frac{F_3(n)}{n^2}=\frac16.

Covers. The instance k=3k=3: both limits equal 1/61/6. It gives nothing for k≥4k\ge4.

Depends on. No page of this wiki.

Acceptance. Refereed: the paper appeared in Geometriae Dedicata. The site labels the problem OPEN, so its remark crediting the paper is not acceptance.