Trinal Decompositions of Steiner Triple Systems into Triangles

Abstract It is well known that when or , there exists a Steiner triple system (STS) of order n decomposable into triangles (three pairwise intersecting triples whose intersection is empty). A triangle in an STS determines naturally two more triples: the triple of “vertices” , and the triple of “midpoints” . The number of these triples in both cases, that of “vertex” triples (inner) or that of “midpoint triples” (outer), equals one‐third …