Question

Question 1 (25 points)

An isosceles triangle has a base 8.8 units long. If the congruent side lengths have measures to the first decimal place, what is
the shortest possible length of the sides?
4.5
8.9
4.3
Od
17.7
b
С

Answer 1

4.5

Explanation:

For any triangle, the basic principle for these types of problems is that the sum of the 2 shorter sides has to be greater than the longest side, otherwise it is not a triangle, even if it's equal to the longest side.

So, let's look at the first option. 4.5. Since this is an isosceles triangle and the base is 8.8 units, the other side has to be 4.5 as well. 4.5+4.5=9. 9 > 8.8. So, we can immediately eliminate options 8.9 and 17.7. What about 4.3? Well, 4.3+4.3= 8.6, but 8.6 < 8.8, so 8.6 is wrong. So, the answer is 4.5.