# Project Euler

## Triangular, pentagonal, and hexagonal

### Problem 45

Triangle, pentagonal, and hexagonal numbers are generated by the following formulas:

 Triangle Tn=n(n+1)/2 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, … Pentagonal Pn=n(3n−1)/2 1, 5, 12, 22, 35, … Hexagonal Hn=n(2n−1) 1, 6, 15, 28, 45, …

It can be verified that T285 = P165 = H143 = 40755.

Find the next triangle number that is also pentagonal and hexagonal.

Following from last problem, we can use similar strategy to check if a number is a triangular, pentagonal, and hexagonal by verifying the following two formulas from here:

$P(s, n) = \frac{n^2(s-2) - n(s-4)}{2}$
$n = \frac{\sqrt{8 (s-2)x + (s-4)^2} + (s-4)}{2(s-2)}$

where P(s, n) = x and s is equal to the number of sides and n is the nth s-gonal number.

Another key observation from above is that every hexagonal number is also a triangular number (you can verify this using the formula above).

$P(6, n) = P(3, 2n-1)$

Therefore, we can minimize our check by finding the next hexagonal number (starting with n = 144) and verify if it is also a pentagonal number.