Points at rational distance from the vertices of a triangle (Q4024741)

The following theorem is proved: Let \(ABC\) be a triangle such that the length of at least one side is rational and the squares of the lengths of all sides are rational. Then the set of points \(P\) whose distances \(PA\), \(PB\), \(PC\) to the vertices of the triangle are rational is dense in the plane of the triangle. \textit{J. H. J. Almering} [Nederl. Akad. Wet., Proc., Ser. A 66, 192--199 (1963; Zbl 0117.28501)] established the theorem for a triangle with all sides of rational length. The three distances of a point to the vertices of a triangle satisfy a quartic equation which can be viewed as defining a surface in three dimensional space. It turns out that this is a Kummer surface, which greatly aids computation. (This was observed by the author in [Ann. Sc. Norm. Super. Pisa, Cl. Sci., IV. Ser. 17, 505--529 (1990; Zbl 0726.11041)] for the case of an isosceles right triangle). The theorem is proved by showing that almost all members of a particular pencil of elliptic curves on the surface satisfy the Hurwitz-Poincaré criterion for the density of the set of rational points in the set of real points.