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Printjmc
geometry intermediate
Problem
How many different triangles can be formed having a perimeter of 7 units if each side must have integral length?
Solution
Let and represent the three side lengths of the triangle. The perimeter is so . We know by the Triangle Inequality that the sum of two side lengths of a triangle must be greater than the third side length. If we focus on the variable , we have We could easily replace with or , so the maximum length of any of the three sides is . If , then and and could be and in some order or and in some order. If we let or and the maximum side length is , we'll still end up with triangles of side lengths or . There are different triangles.
Final answer
2