Math Playground
Geometry

Heron's formula

Area from three sides — no height needed.

Heron's formula gives you the area of any triangle from just the three side lengths — no height required. Magic when you don't know which side is the base.

Heron's formula
A = √(s(s−a)(s−b)(s−c))

s = (a + b + c) / 2 is the semi-perimeter.

Try it

Triangle with sides 5, 6, 7.

s = 9. A = √(9 · 4 · 3 · 2) = √216 ≈ 14.70.

It's named after Hero of Alexandria (~60 AD) but the result was almost certainly known to Archimedes 200 years earlier.

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