 In which case, squaring both sides would yield that ("a" + "b")2 ≤ "c"2, or equivalently, "a"2 + 2"ab" + "b"2 ≤ "c"2.A triangle is non-degenerate if each of its edges has positive length, so it may be assumed that both "a" and "b" are greater than 0.Therefore, "a"2 + "b"2 2 + 2"ab" + "b"2 ≤ "c"2, and the transitive relation may be reduced further to "a"2 + "b"2 2.