Question

If the measures of two sides of a triangle are 3 feet and 7 feet, which of the following is a possible whole number measure for the third side?

Answer 1

Imagine a a triangle with has the third side as small as possible. This would happen when the angle between the 3 ft and the 7 ft side is almost 0. The trangle would basically look like a line with the 3 ft and 7ft sides on top of each other, and the length of the third side would be just 7 ft - 3 ft = 4 ft.

Next, imagine a triangle with the third side as big as possible. This would happen when the angle between the 3 ft and 7 ft sides is 180 degrees. Again, the triangle would look like a line, but this time the 3 ft and 7ft sides would be pointing in opposite directions. The length of the third side would be 3 ft + 7ft = 10 ft.

This means that hte side length must be between 4 ft and 10 ft. Try using this logic on the rest of your homework problems.

Answer 2

Thanks