Question

A triangle has two sides of length 1 and 8. What is the smallest possible whole-number length for the third side?

Answer 1

8

Explanation:

For the smallest possible length, this has to be one of the shorter sides. Let the length of this side be x.

So, by the triangle inequality theorem, 1+x>8, which means x>7.

So, the smallest possible whole number length is 8.