Question

How do you use Heron's formula to find the area of a triangle with sides of lengths `5`, `4`, and `8`?

Answer 1

≈ 8.18 square units

Explanation:

This is a 2 step process

step 1 : Calculate half of the perimeter (s) of the triangle

let a = 5 , b = 4 and c = 8

`s = (a+b+c)/2 = (5+4+8)/2 = 17/2 = 8.5`

step 2 : Calculate the area using

area `= sqrt(s(s-a)(s-b)(s-c))`

`= sqrt(8.5(8.5-5)(8.5-4)(8.5-8))`

`= sqrt(8.5xx3.5xx4.5xx0.5) ≈ 8.18" square units "`