Question

A triangle has two sides of length 19 and 16. what is the smallest possible whole-number length for the third side?

Answer 1

The smallest possible length for the third side would be 36 whatever-the-nineteen-and-the-sixteen-unit-is.


My Reasoning/Work:
In a triangle, sides a+b>c, b+c>a, etc.. So, we first add up the two known sides.$19+16\ \textgreater \ c$
Now we know that "c" has to be greater than 35, the closest whole number would be 36. And because the smaller numbers, 19 and 16, are settled, we know just by the fact how just one number is greater than all of the others, using the rule that I listed from the beginning, that this will work.