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This series is designed to help you step up your Data Sufficiency practice while we all spend a little extra time at home during the coronavirus situation; I’m going to publish one practice Data Sufficiency question each day! You can choose to do all of them, or none of them. 

Click on the tag “Social Distancing DS Challenge” at the bottom of this post to see all of the questions in this series! 

And remember to take whatever precautions you need to stay healthy over the next few weeks! 

Question #22

In triangle ABC, if AB = x, BC = x – 1, AC = y, which of the three angles of triangle ABC has the smallest degree measure?

(1) y = x – 2

(2) y = 5

 Explanation

In a triangle, the smallest side will be opposite the angle with the smallest degree measure. If we can identify which side is shortest, we can identify the smallest angle.

Statement (1) tells us that AC = y = x – 2. Since the other sides have measures of x and x-1, we know that AC will be the smallest side. You can test this out by making up a value for x. Since we know AC is the smallest side, we can find the angle with the smallest degree measure. Sufficient.

Statement (2) tells us the length of y. This does not help us determine which side is smallest, so it is not sufficient. The correct answer is (A).