ANSWER
9
EXPLANATION
For any triangle the sum of the lengths of any two sides must be greater than the length of the third side.
Thus, for this triangle,
[tex]2x>17[/tex]
Divide both sides by 2,
[tex]\begin{gathered} \frac{2x}{2}>\frac{17}{2} \\ x>8.5 \end{gathered}[/tex]
There is one more restriction, that x is a whole number. Hence, the smallest possible value of x is the whole number immediately greater than 8.5, which is 9.
