Homework Help: Algebra

Posted by Caroline on Friday, January 18, 2008 at 1:57pm.

Jake has a 3 foot long peice of wood that he wants to make into a triangular frame. He cuts a peice off of the board that is 1 foot 5 inches long. From the remaining board he cuts off another peice that is 7 inches long. He now has 3 peices of wood. Will he be able to fit 3 peices together to make a triangle? Explain

Algebra - drwls, Friday, January 18, 2008 at 3:24pm
No, he can't. Since his first cut was in the middle, making one more cut cannot make two sides that exceed the length of the longest side. To form a triangle, no side can have a length that equals or exceeds the sum of the lengths of the other two sides.
Algebra - Reiny, Friday, January 18, 2008 at 4:56pm
drwls probably made an arithmetic error.

Jake starts with 36 inches, cuts off 17 inches, leaving 19 inches.
From that he cuts 7 inches, leaving 12

so his 3 pieces are 17, 7, and 12 inches.
The sum of any two of these exceeds the third side, so the triangle is possible. (ignoring any lengths lost due to the cuts)

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