SOLUTION: if one side of my triangle is 12 and one side is 20 what is the 3rd side?

Question 202190: if one side of my triangle is 12 and one side is 20 what is the 3rd side?
Answer by Earlsdon(6294) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Just imagine that you have two sticks, one is 12 inches and the other is 20 inches, that are hinged together at one end so that you can open and close them thus forming a V.
You can easily see that you can form a triangle by connecting a third stick at the end of the two, but because you can open and close the hinged sticks, the third sick can be of almost any length, except, of course, it must be shorter than the sum of the lengths of the two hinged sticks.
It's impossible to say until you provide more information about the triangle.
For example, if you provide the perimeter of the triangle, then an answer can be found.
If you provide the measure of one or more of the angles, then an answer can be found.
If you tell us that this is a right triangle and you further tell us which is the longest side, then we can say what the length of the third side is.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Later addition!
I'm sorry I wasted your time but I'm even sorrier that you wasted my time!
The only way that your answer of 16 would be correct is if the triangle in your problem happened to be a right triangle and if the 20-side happened to be the hyptenuse of the right triangle. You provided no information at all about this!
But from the very limited information that you provided, my answer was sufficient and appropriate.
RELATED QUESTIONS
If one side of a triangle is 12, and the other side is 20, whats the last side ? (answered by Fombitz)

What is the 3rd side of triangle if side 1 is 11 ft and side 2 is 9 ft? (answered by cs1998)

if one side of a triangle 1s 12 and other is 7 then what is the third... (answered by stanbon)

if the length of one side of a triangle is 63cm, the other is 87, what is the length of... (answered by josgarithmetic)

One side of the triangle is 12 cm and the other 20 cm, how long is the third... (answered by Okamiden,MathTherapy)

The perimeter of a triangle is 62 inches. Find the length of the 3 sides if one side is... (answered by richwmiller)

what kind of triangle is it one side has length 5, one side has length 12, and one side... (answered by solver91311,ewatrrr)

If a right triangle has sides of 12 and 5, what is the hypotenuse side equal to? If a... (answered by stanbon,richwmiller)

A right triangle one base is 10 inches the other is 20 inches what is the side of the 3rd (answered by checkley77)