A sphere is centered at a point with integer coordinates and passes through the three points , , but not the origin . If is the smallest possible radius of the sphere, compute .
Solution
Let be the center of the sphere. By the given condition, we have Subtracting yields or Therefore must be for some integer . Checking small values of yields that the possibilities for closest to are , and . The second yields a sphere that passes through the origin and is thus forbidden. The other two yield and , so 51 is the answer.
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