Problem:
The sides of a triangle have lengths , and , where  is a whole number. What is the smallest possible value of 
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Answer Choices:
A.  
B.  
C.  
D.  
E.  
Solution:
For any triangle, the sum of the lengths of any two sides must be greater than the length of the third side. Thus must be greater than . The smallest such whole number for is .
Answer: .
The problems on this page are the property of the MAA's American Mathematics Competitions