
Suzanne C. answered 03/06/13
Graduate Student in Psychology
You already know that all the angles of a triangle add up to 180, so you already have one piece of the puzzle completed. Put 180 on one side of the question.
?????? = 180
All you need in order to solve this problem is a little bit of algebra.
Let x represent one of the three angles.
Our first angle is simply x
The second angle is 7 more than the first angle (x +7)
The third angle is 23 more than three times the first angle, which is three times X, plus 23 (3x+23)
Now all you need to do is put the equation together:
x + (x+7) + (3x+23) = 180
Now solve for x:
5x + 7 + 23 = 180
5x + 30 = 180
5x = 150
x = 30
Now let's see what each angle is when we put in 30 for x, the first angle. If it adds up to 180, that's a good sign we're right.
First angle: 30
Second angle: 30+7 = 37
Third angle: 3(30)+23 = 113
30+37+113 = 180