The static three-quark (3Q) potential is studied in detail using SU(3) lattice QCD with (Formula presented) at (Formula presented) and (Formula presented) at (Formula presented) at the quenched level. For more than 300 different patterns of the 3Q systems, we perform the accurate measurement of the 3Q Wilson loop with the smearing method, which reduces excited-state contaminations, and present the lattice QCD data of the 3Q ground-state potential (Formula presented) We perform the detailed fit analysis on (Formula presented) in terms of the YAnsatz both with the continuum Coulomb potential and with the lattice Coulomb potential, and find that the lattice QCD data of the 3Q potential (Formula presented) are well reproduced within a few percent deviation by the sum of a constant, the two-body Coulomb term and the three-body linear confinement term (Formula presented) with (Formula presented) the minimal value of the total length of color flux tubes linking the three quarks. From the comparison with the (Formula presented) potential, we find a universality of the string tension as (Formula presented) and the one-gluon-exchange result for the Coulomb coefficients as (Formula presented) We investigate also the several fit analyses with the various Ansätze: the Y Ansatz with the Yukawa potential, the (Formula presented) Ansatz and a more general Ansatz including the Y and the (Formula presented) Ansätze in some limits. All these fit analyses support the Y Ansatz on the confinement part in the 3Q potential (Formula presented) although (Formula presented) seems to be approximated by the (Formula presented) Ansatz with (Formula presented). © 2002 The American Physical Society.