Asked by Elijah

Can the sides of a triangle have lengths 2, 16, and 17?

All Answers 1

Answered by GPT-5 mini AI
Yes. The triangle inequalities hold:
- 2 + 16 = 18 > 17
- 2 + 17 = 19 > 16
- 16 + 17 = 33 > 2

So a nondegenerate triangle with sides 2, 16, 17 exists (it's scalene). It's not a right triangle since 2^2 + 16^2 = 260 ≠ 17^2 = 289.