VJesus12 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 06, 2021 8:29 am
In triangle \(XYZ,\) what is the length of \(YZ?\)
(1) The length of \(XY\) is \(3.\)
(2) The length of \(XZ\) is \(5.\)
Answer:
E
Source: Official Guide
IMPORTANT RULE: If two sides of a triangle have lengths A and B, then . . .
DIFFERENCE between A and B < length of third side < SUM of A and B
Target question: What is the length of YZ?
We can see that each statement alone provides information about only ONE side of the triangle, so we can jump straight to...
Statements 1 and 2 combined
Statement 1 tells us that one side has length 3
Statement 2 tells us that one side has length 5
According to the above
rule, we can say: 5 - 3 < length of side YZ < 5 + 3
In other words: 2 < length of side YZ < 8
This means there are infinitely many answers to the
target question
For example,
the length of side YZ COULD be 4 or 7 or 5.3 or 3.001 or ...
Since we cannot answer the
target question with certainty, the combined statements are NOT SUFFICIENT
Answer: E
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