Question

A triangle with side lengths of 8, 15, and 17.5 form a right triangle.

Answer 1

9514 1404 393

Answer:

  false

Step-by-step explanation:

You can check to see if the sum of squares of the smaller two numbers is equal to the square of the larger.

  8² +15² vs 17.5²

  64 +225 vs 306.25

At this point, you need go no further. The sum of two integers will not have a fractional part, so cannot be equal to 306.25.

  289 vs 306.25 . . . . the long side is too long for a right triangle.

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If you were familiar with some of the Pythagorean triples, you would know that the closest triple is {8, 15, 17}, so (8, 15, 17.5) does not represent a right triangle.

A few common Pythagorean triples are ...

  {3, 4, 5}, {5, 12, 13}, {7, 24, 25}, {8, 15, 17}, {9, 40, 41}