AREA OF A TRIANGLE

There are several ways to compute the area of a triangle. For instance, there's the basic formula that the area of a triangle is half the base times the height. This formula works only when you know the height and base of the triangle.

There is another area of a triangle formula known as the Heron's formula which gives the area in terms of the three sides of the triangle, specifically, as the square root of the product s(s – a)(s – b)(s – c) where s is the semiperimeter of the triangle, that is, s = (a + b + c)/2.

This formula can be used when we know two sides and the included angle of the triangle. Suppose we know the values of the two sides a and b of the triangle, and the included angle C, then we can get the area of the same triangle by applying the above formula.

Let us now calculate area of a triangle in the below examples.

Example 1) Calculate area of a triangle with base as 12cms and height as 10cms

Area of a Triangle = ½* base*height

A = ½*12*10

A = 60cms

Example 2) Calculate area of a triangle with base as 5cms and height as 8cms

Area of a Triangle = ½* base*height

A = ½5*8

A = 20cms