An isosceles triangle has two sides of length 5 and 12. What is the perimeter of the triangle?

Question

badhi · Answer

can you find the length of the other side of the triangle? (hint: sum of two sides should be greater than the other side)

anonymous · Answer

No lol I don't understand. So the side has to be at least 17?

whpalmer4 · Answer

Doesn't an isosceles triangle have some special relationship between the lengths of the sides?

directrix · Answer

The sides of the triangle are 5, 5, 12 OR 5, 12, 12 because the triangle is isosceles and has two congruent sides. We just don't know which two unless we take @BAdhi 's suggestion and use the Triangle Inequality theorem.

anonymous · Answer

So it would have to be 5, 12, 12 because 5, 5, 12 makes the sum of the two sides less than 12 right?

whpalmer4 · Answer

Yes!

whpalmer4 · Answer

So what is the perimeter?

anonymous · Answer

29!

whpalmer4 · Answer

Correctamundo!

anonymous · Answer

Ahh thank you!!