Question

What is the smallest possible answer for X? X is a whole number.

Answer 1

ANSWER

9

EXPLANATION

For any triangle the sum of the lengths of any two sides must be greater than the length of the third side.

Thus, for this triangle,

$2x>17$

Divide both sides by 2,

$\begin{gathered} \frac{2x}{2}>\frac{17}{2} \\ x>8.5 \end{gathered}$

There is one more restriction, that x is a whole number. Hence, the smallest possible value of x is the whole number immediately greater than 8.5, which is 9.