Question

If two sides of a triangle are 1 and 3, the third side may be?

Answer 1

Hello!

To solve this we can use the Pythagorean Theorem, a²+b²=c², where a and b represent the legs and c represents the hypotenuse. We will solve below.

1²+3²=c²
1+9=10

We have 10=c². We can isolate c by finding the square root of 10.

√10≈3.16

Therefore, the other side could be 3.16.
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Note that 3 could also be the hypotenuse. We could solve the equation the other way around to see what the other side could be (it could be the hypotenuse or a leg).

9-1=8
√8≈2.83

Therefore, the length of the third side could be either 3.16 or 2.83.

I hope this helps!