if there's an isosceles triangle and one length on one side is 5 and the other is 12, what is the length of x.
A. 5
B. 7
C.17
D.12
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I have no idea. You do not say what x is. If it is the length of one side of the triangle, then it must be either 5 or 12, since two sides of the triangle must be the same.
Even without the picture, I can tell that the third side must be 12, and not 5. Why? Think about it. The two sides of 5, even if stretched end to end, would not be long enough to join up with both ends of the 12 side.
But two sides of 12 can be folded up so that the 3rd side is just 5.