Volume §, Number 1, June 1977 EXACT DIFFERENCE TRIANGLES BY G.J. CHANG, M.C. HU, K. W. LIH, AND T.C. SHIEH (*) Abstract, The non-existence of exact difference triangles of order greater than five is demonstrated, 1. Introduction. For any positive integer *> 2, let Va = (Gf) |14. Let Sy = (1,2,-++, a}, B= ftn(n+D-fli Re = fons Peay, tna, k= Note that S,AB,=@ and |b—6'|ES, if b and 6’ are distinct elements of By. For each k, 1> 5s; Therefore s; = min Rj. We have already seen b= sm + 1) = maxR,.194 G.J. CHANG, M.C. HU, KW, LIH, AND T.C, SHIEH Dune. Now suppose j<, By induction we may assume y * s 1. Therefore bp =2y,1 OF By = x,1+2. Without loss of generality, we may assume b, = <,,r+2. Then By-1 = bp — 8, =Fe-1141. Since Sy-1 is adjacent to by-1 and 2y-11¢S,, we have Sq-1 ‘a-t,e+2 and then 2z,2+3= bs, — S.-1€B,. If we let * stand for a position occupied by an element of B,, then a part of the graph of X appears as follows. * Sa = nie Bn = Bats u * Bat = Eat, t41 Sant Sana Now let u=4n(n—1)-1 If weR, for some kXn—2, then, since b,¢Rri1, # must lie right below a certain element of B, and a certain element of S, The argument used in the proof of Lemma 4 can be adapted to show Lema 6. #(Re9(B,U{uj)) <1 for k +n(n—1). By Lemma 3, 4 pen —p +) >, > Lmtw—1). i 2 2 We have @ Qn > (1 — p)? + (wp). On the other hand, we know n+1=#B,= Yo # (Rin B,) = > # (RnB) x #(R.iNB,) > (w+ 1) — (a —3) — (#—p—1) =5—(n—p)>2. Therefore we must have n—p=3 and17] EXACT DIFFERENCE TRIANGLES 197 #(R.OB,) = 2-3, # (Ry-19 By) = 2, # (R.-29B,) = 1, # (Ry-a0 B,) = 1. Note that, for m= 6 and 7, bu < 4 (2-4) (0 +5) <0 =4n(n—1)—1. By Lemmas 6 and 7, # must appear on the top row. Let us count the number of elements in R,. Besides the %—3 elements of R,B,, there are. ss, #, and at least two other elements to separate # from R,9B,. Thus n= #R, > (w—3) + 2425041. This is impossible. Hence 6 and #7. Our theorem is proved. REFERENCE 1, M. Gardner, Mathematical games, Scientific American 236 (1977), No. 4, 129-136. INSTITUTE OF MATHEMATICS, ACADEMIA SINICA, TAIPEI, TATWAN 115, R.0.C.