Hm3105 wrote:
The sides of a parallelogram are 10 and 11. The integral value of the length of the diagonal opposite to the acute angle is at most______
[spoiler=]OA: 14
We'll let the red star represent the acute angle in each case.
Notice that, as the acute angle approaches 90°, the length of the diagonal increases.
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/2xH74IF.png)
So the greatest value of the length of the diagonal opposite the acute angle will occur when the acute angle is as close as possible to 90° (e.g., 89.99999999999999999°)
If the angle is 90°, then we can apply the Pythagorean theorem to see that that the length of the diagonal \(= \sqrt{221}\)
So, if the acute angle were 89.99999999999999999°, the length of the diagonal would be a teeny tiny bit less than \(\sqrt{221}\)
We already know that:
\(\sqrt{196}=14\)
and
\(\sqrt{225}=15\)
So, \(\sqrt{221}\) must be BETWEEN 14 and 15
Since the length of the diagonal must be an
integer, the greatest possible length is 14
Answer: 14
Cheers,
Brent