Question

And isosceles triangle has two sides of equal length. The third side is five less than twice the length of one of the other sites. If the perimeter of the triangle is 23 cm, what is the length of the third triangle?

Explain how you would define a variable for this problem.

Answer 1

The third side has a length of 9

Explanation:

The two sides of equal length can be represented as x, and x

The thirds side is five less that twice the length of the other sides can be represented as 2x - 5.

The perimeter is 23, so the sum of all 3 sides is 23, now we have..

x + x + 2x - 5 = 23 solve for x...

4x = 28

x = 7,

so two sides are 7, and 7, and the third side is

2(7) - 5

14 - 5

9