clear all ; This Mathomatic script shows two derivations of Heron's formula. ; This is Heron's formula for the area of any triangle, ; given side lengths "a", "b", and "c". 2s = a+b+c triangle_area = (s*(s-a)*(s-b)*(s-c))^.5 eliminate s ; Heron's formula: simplify ; Heron's formula simplified by Mathomatic: pause ; This is how we arrive at Heron's formula for the area ; of any triangle, given side lengths a, b, and c, using the formula ; for the area of a trapezoid with side lengths a, b, c, and d, ; where a and c are the parallel sides (a is the longer parallel side). ; A trapezoid is a quadrilateral with ; two sides that are parallel to each other. ; Formula for the area of a trapezoid that is not a parallelogram: trapezoid_area=(a+c)/(4*(a-c))*((a+b-c+d)*(a-b-c+d)*(a+b-c-d)*(-a+b+c+d))^.5 pause copy replace c with 0 ; make the shorter parallel side length = 0 replace d with c ; Heron's formula in its simplest form: pause Please press the Enter key to verify the result. compare 2 ; simplify and compare the result with Heron's formula: clear pause ; This is how we arrive at Heron's formula for the area ; of any triangle, given side lengths a, b, and c, using ; Brahmagupta's formula for the area of a cyclic quadrilateral, ; making one side length equal zero, to make a cyclic triangle. ; Since all triangles are cyclic (can be circumscribed by a circle), ; this gives the area for any triangle. 2s=a+b+c+d ; cyclic quadrilateral side lengths are a, b, c, and d cyclic_area = ((s-a)*(s-b)*(s-c)*(s-d))^.5 eliminate s ; Brahmagupta's formula: pause copy replace d with 0 ; make one side length zero to get Heron's formula: pause Please press the Enter key to verify the result. compare 2 ; simplify and compare the result with Heron's formula: clear clear 1 3