2017 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 10

Problem

Joy has $30$ thin rods, one each of every integer length from $1$ cm through $30$ cm. She places the rods with lengths $3$ cm, $7$ cm, and $15$ cm on a table. She then wants to choose a fourth rod that she can put with these three to form a quadrilateral with positive area. How many of the remaining rods can she choose as the fourth rod?

$\textbf{(A)}\ 16\qquad\textbf{(B)}\ 17\qquad\textbf{(C)}\ 18\qquad\textbf{(D)}\ 19\qquad\textbf{(E)}\ 20$

Solution

The triangle inequality generalizes to all polygons, so $x < 3+7+15$ and $x+3+7>15$ to get $5<x<25$ . Now, we know that there are $19$ numbers between $5$ and $25$ exclusive, but we must subtract $2$ to account for the 2 lengths already used, which gives $19-2=\boxed{17.}$

2017 AMC 10A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 9	Followed by Problem 11
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All AMC 10 Problems and Solutions

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2017 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 10

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