ISL 2009 C2

For any integer $n \geq 2$, let $N(n)$ be the maximal number of triples $\left(a_{i}, b_{i}, c_{i}\right), i=1, \ldots, N(n)$, consisting of nonnegative integers $a_{i}, b_{i}$ and $c_{i}$ such that the following two conditions are satisfied: (1) $a_{i}+b_{i}+c_{i}=n$ for all $i=1, \ldots, N(n)$, (2) If $i \neq j$, then $a_{i} \neq a_{j}, b_{i} \neq b_{j}$ and $c_{i} \neq c_{j}$. Determine $N(n)$ for all $n \geq 2$. Comment. The original problem was formulated for $m$-tuples instead for triples. The numbers $N(m, n)$ are then defined similarly to $N(n)$ in the case $m=3$. The numbers $N(3, n)$ and $N(n, n)$ should be determined. The case $m=3$ is the same as in the present problem. The upper bound for $N(n, n)$ can be proved by a simple generalization. The construction of a set of triples attaining the bound can be easily done by induction from $n$ to $n+2$.