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Algebra Difficulty 2.7 Junior Find the answer

The lengths of the sides of a triangle in inches are three consecutive integers. The length of the shortest side is 30%30\% of the perimeter. What is the length of the longest side?

Pick one

Solution

Let nn, n+1n+1, and n+2n+2 be the lengths of the sides of the triangle. Then the perimeter of the triangle is n+(n+1)+(n+2)=3n+3n + (n+1) + (n+2) = 3n+3. Using the fact that the length of the smallest side is 30%30\% of the perimeter, it follows that:
n=0.3(3n+3)n=0.9n+0.90.1n=0.9n=9n = 0.3(3n+3) \Rightarrow n = 0.9n+0.9 \Rightarrow 0.1n = 0.9 \Rightarrow n=9. The longest side is then n+2=11n+2 = 11. Thus, answer choice (E) 11\boxed{\textbf{(E)}\ 11} is correct.

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.