Question

Two sides of a triangle have lengths 8 and 17. What must be true about the third side?

Answer 1

That the length of the the third side must be <8+17=25

Answer 2

I dont understand

Answer 3

If you have a triangle with sides a, b, and c and you know the lengths of sides a and b, then the length of c will be:

|a - b| < c < |a + b|

Answer 4

In other words, in this case
a = 8
b = 17

So c is

|8 - 17| < c < |8 + 17|

Answer 5

@BBeckaBee what is the range of length c? Did you figure it out?

Answer 6

Do you know what absolute value symbols || mean?

Answer 7

|8 - 17| = |-9| = 9

The absolute value of a negative number is a positive number.

Answer 8

And |8 + 17| = |25| = 25

Answer 9

So this means that the length of c will be 9 < c < 25

Answer 10

In other words, the length of c will be between 9 and 25 given that the length of a is 8 and the length of b is 17

Answer 11

This is standard procedure for figuring out the range of the length of side c.

Answer 12

@BBeckaBee I'm sorry you don't understand.