https://www.gregmat.com/problems/quant?problem=a-right-triangle-has-a-hypotenuse
write your question here… I was wondering if we could also apply the rule that “a side of a triangle must be less than the sum of any two sides” to this question. And in that case 8, 9 and 10 could all be the sums of the other two since root 50 is less than all of them. Please let me know if I misinterpreted/applied this law incorrectly
This is a bit too “weak.” The triangle inequality is true for any triangle, but you can do better here because you’re given more information (like the fact that it’s a right triangle).
For example, the sum of two positive numbers is always positive. But if I were to ask you for the sum of 2 + 5, just saying the result will be positive is a ‘weak’ answer because I’ve given you the exact numbers. You can do better, such as stating the sum must be less than 10, or providing the exact value.