Solution:
For a fixed point x∈P, let Tx be the set of all triangles with vertices in P which have x as a vertex. Clearly, ∣Tx∣=(n−12), and each triangle in Tx has a side which is not a side of any other triangle in Tx. For any x,y∈P such that x=y, we have Tx=Ty if and only if n⩾4. We will show that any possible set T is equal to Tx for some x∈P, i.e. that the answer is 1 for n=3 and n for n⩾4.
Let
T={ti:i=1,2,…,(n−12)},S={si:i=1,2,…,(n−12)}
such that T is a set of triangles whose vertices are all in P, and si is a side of ti but not of any tj, j=i. Furthermore, let C be the collection of all the (n3) triangles whose vertices are in P. Note that
∣C\T∣=(n3)−(n−12)=(n−13)
Let m be the number of pairs (s,t) such that s∈S is a side of t∈C\T. Since every s∈S is a side of exactly n−3 triangles from C\T, we have
m=∣S∣⋅(n−3)=(n−12)⋅(n−3)=3⋅(n−13)=3⋅∣C\T∣
On the other hand, every t∈C\T has at most three sides from S. By the above equality, for every t∈C\T, all its sides must be in S.
Assume that for p∈P there is a side s∈S such that p is an endpoint of s. Then p is also a vertex of each of the n−3 triangles in C\T which have s as a side. Consequently, p is an endpoint of n−2 sides in S. Since every side in S has exactly 2 endpoints, the number of points p∈P which occur as a vertex of some s∈S is
n−22⋅∣S∣=n−22⋅(n−12)=n−1
Consequently, there is an x∈P which is not an endpoint of any s∈S, and hence T must be equal to Tx.