document.write( "Question 935941: A student has sticks of lengths 5 cm and 9 cm. She wants to use a third stick to form a triangle. What are the possible lengths of the third side?
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Algebra.Com's Answer #569332 by Edwin McCravy(20054)\"\" \"About 
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document.write( "Suppose you had a big triangle ABC, maybe meters instead of centimeters,\r\n" );
document.write( "drawn on the ground. \r\n" );
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document.write( "1. If you start at A, walk from A to B and then from B to C, \r\n" );
document.write( "then you must have walked farther than if you had walked \r\n" );
document.write( "directly along the straight line from A to C.\r\n" );
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document.write( "2. If you start at B, walk from B to C then from C to A, \r\n" );
document.write( "then you must have walked farther than if you had walked \r\n" );
document.write( "directly along the straight line from B to A.\r\n" );
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document.write( "3. If you start at C, walk from C to A and then from A to B, \r\n" );
document.write( "then you must have walked farther than if you had walked \r\n" );
document.write( "directly along the straight line from C to A.\r\n" );
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document.write( "Why is this?  Becuas the shortest distance between any two\r\n" );
document.write( "points and must be shorter than any other path.\r\n" );
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document.write( "So let the third stick be x cm long.\r\n" );
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document.write( "Then the sides of the triangle are x, 5, and 9 cm.\r\n" );
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document.write( "The sum of any two must be greater than the third, so we havd the three inequalities\r\n" );
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document.write( "x+5 > 9,    x+9 > 5  and 5+9 > x\r\n" );
document.write( "  x > 4       x > -4      14 > x\r\n" );
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document.write( "The middle one is obvious.  The other two give us:\r\n" );
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document.write( "              4 < x < 14, so the third side must be more than 4 cm and \r\n" );
document.write( "less than 14 cm.\r\n" );
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document.write( "Edwin

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