A350888 Let X,Y,Z be positive integer solutions to X^2 = Sum_{j=0..Y-1} (1+Z*j)^2, where solutions for Y or Z < 1 are excluded. This sequence lists the values for Z sorted by X.

14, 1, 432, 8, 13, 1932, 12958, 367, 30, 3, 1554, 194, 5082, 388320, 1349, 15254, 178542, 163, 181, 11636654, 418782, 6791, 11928, 192638, 1086, 2209447, 5166, 19317900, 1981979, 262, 348711312, 4799102, 7379, 60240793

Offset

1,1

Comments

This is a generalization of the cannonball problem for pyramids with a slope of 1/a(n). In the cannonball problem, a square pyramid of stacked balls shall contain a square number of balls in total. Each layer of such a pyramid consists of a square number of balls, in the classic case the top layer has one ball, the layers below contain adjacent square numbers of balls. For this sequence we ignore the fact that if adjacent layers do not alternate between odd and even squares the stacking will become difficult at least for sphere-like objects. We start in the top layer always with one ball, but will skip a constant count of square numbers between each layer. This results in pyramids which slope <= 1. A350887(n) is the number of layers needed to stack such a pyramid. As this sequence is only a list of solutions, n has no known relation to its definition.

For each slope 1/a(n) there exists exactly one or no such pyramid with a square number of balls.

Links

Table of n, a(n) for n=1..34.

Thomas Scheuerle, Some solutions to this problem sorted by A350887.

Thomas Scheuerle, Recursive solution formulas.

Index entries for sequences related to sums of squares.

Formula

A350886(n)^2 = a(n)^2*binomial(2*A350887(n), 3)/4 + 2*a(n)*binomial(A350887(n), 2) + A350887(n).

A350886(n)^2 = c*((b*(4*b*c^2-(6*c-2)*b + 12*(c-1)) + 12)/12), with c = A350887(n) and b = a(n). Expanded to see factors more clearly.

A350886(n)^2 = c*b^2*( ((1/b) + (c-1)/2)^2 + (c^2-1)/12 ). Shorter form of above.

a(n) != a(m) if n != m.

Let s(n) be the sequence of numbers such that A350887(s(n)) = 4 and s(n) is sorted in ascending order, then a(s(n)) has the ordinary generating function (2*(-7 + z))/(-1 + 31*z - 31*z^2 + z^3).

Let s(n) be the sequence of numbers such that A350887(s(n)) = 49 and s(n) is sorted in ascending order, then a(s(n)) has the ordinary generating function (-13 + z)/(-1 + 391*z - 391*z^2 + z^3).

Example

a(1) = 14 and A350886(1) = 54, A350887(1) = 4:
  54^2 = 1^2 + 15^2 + 29^2 + 43^2.
a(2) = 1 and A350886(2) = 70, A350887(2) = 24:
  70^2 = 1^2 + 2^2 + 3^2 + ... + 23^2 + 24^2. This is the classic solution for the cannonball problem.

Prog

(PARI)
sqtest(n, c)={q=1; for(t=2, c, t+=n; q+=(t*t); if(issquare(q), break)); q}
z=500000; b=[; ]; for(n=0, z, r=sqtest(n, z); if(issquare(r), b=concat(b, [sqrtint(r); n+1]))); b=vecsort(b, 1); vector(#b, k, b[2, k]) \\ Last valid value for z=500000 is 5082.

Crossrefs

Cf. A350886 (square root of pyramid), A350887 (number of layers).

Cf. A000330, A000447, A024215, A024381 (square pyramidal numbers for slope 1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4).

Cf. A076215, A001032, A134419, A106521. Some related problems.

Cf. A186699.

Sequence in context: A071713 A147716 A223516 * A348335 A040192 A112647

Adjacent sequences: A350885 A350886 A350887 * A350889 A350890 A350891

Keyword

nonn,more

Author

Thomas Scheuerle, Feb 25 2022

Status

approved