Question
A triangle has two sides of length 18 and 20. What is the largest possible whole -number length for the third side? square Video @
Answer
4.1
(176 Votes)
Felix
Elite · Tutor for 8 years
Answer
37
Explanation
This problem involves the principle of triangle inequality that in a triangle, the length of each side must be less than the sum of the lengths of the other two sides. Given that two sides are 18 and 20, to obtain the largest whole number for the third side, the sum of these two lengths should be decremented by 1. Therefore the length of the third side must be less than 38 (18+20), and the largest possible whole number is 37.