Answer:
The length of the shortest side is 3 units.
Explanation:
Let's assume that the shortest side has a length of 3x, where x is a constant.
Then, the other sides would have lengths of 10x and 7x, respectively.
To check if this is a valid triangle, we need to make sure that the sum of the lengths of any two sides is greater than the length of the third side:
3x + 10x > 7x (sum of shortest and middle side is greater than longest side)
3x + 7x > 10x (sum of shortest and longest side is greater than middle side)
10x + 7x > 3x (sum of middle and longest side is greater than shortest side)
Simplifying these inequalities, we get:
13x > 7x
10x > 3x
17x > 0
All of these inequalities are true if x > 0, so our assumption is valid.
Therefore, the length of the shortest side is 3x. To find the value of x, we can set up the following equation based on the given ratio:
3x : 10x : 7x = 3 : 10 : 7
Simplifying this equation by dividing all sides by x, we get:
3 : 10 : 7 = 3 : 10 : 7
This is true, so any value of x will satisfy the given ratio.
However, to find the length of the shortest side, we can simply substitute x = 1 into our assumption:
Shortest side = 3x = 3(1) = 3
Therefore, the length of the shortest side is 3 units.
Hope this helps! Sorry if this is wrong. :]