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Hero

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yoon tim lam
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34 views4 pages

Hero

Uploaded by

yoon tim lam
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Hero’s formula for the area of a triangle

David O’Connor
Hastings School Madrid
[email protected]

June 2, 2011

Abstract
Hero’s formula for the area of a triangle given the lengths is both
simple and useful. It’s derivation is an excellent exercise for extension
work in IGCSE or even as revision for an AS course. This article aims
to refresh the formula in teacher’s minds and to introduce it to those
who haven’t met it yet. Thanks to Pablo Moreno for bringing the
formula to my attention.

1 An short exercise in chaos


Suppose we have a regular hexagon of side 3.7 mm. What is the area of
the hexagon? Try this problem with your pupils initially giving the minimal
amount of guidance. It is not a trivial problem and if you can refrain from
too much initial input, you can spot and make note of all sorts of errors
here, right from the initial attack through to the final answer.
The problem arose in a lesson on volumes. I wanted to give a hands on
approach and suggested that the pupils estimated the volume of their pencil.
I had imagined a cone atop a cylinder giving a relatively simple compound
shape and a good workout in calculator work, accuracy and units. Most
of the pencils cross sections were in fact regular hexagons and the initial
problem evolved to much more interesting one. Using a vernier callipers
borrowed from the science department, the hexagon’s side was measured to
be 3.7 mm. and I focused the class on this area problem. The class was a
first year IGCSE one and had not met the area rule using the sine of the
included angle.

1
C
a
b
c
A B

Figure 1: Triangle ABC.

2 A need for simplicity


The difficulties involved in calculating the area of one of the congruent tri-
angles in the hexagon made me wish for a simpler method where the pupils
wouldn’t lose sight of the original objective, that of calculating the cross-
sectional area in order to find the volume of the pencil body. Enter Hero.

3 The formula
Consider a triangle ABC with sides, a,b and c figure (1). Hero’s formula
uses the semiperimeter S of the triangle:
a+b+c
S=
2
to give a formula for the area A of the triangle:
p
A = S(S − a)(S − b)(S − c)
For an equilateral triangle of side 3.7 mm, we first find S.
3.7 + 3.7 + 3.7
S=
2
S = 5.55 mm.

Now we find the area:


p
A = S(S − a)(S − b)(S − c)
p
A = (5.55)(5.55 − 3.7)(5.55 − 3.7)(5.55 − 3.7)
√
A = 30.8025
A = 5.927 mm2 .

Beautiful.

2
C

a
b h

A X c B

Figure 2: Triangle ABC.

4 Deriving Hero’s formula


The derivation uses the sine rule for the area of a triangle, the cosine rule
and the sin2 θ + cos2 θ = 1 identity. Consider again the triangle ABC in
figure (2) Dropping a perpendicular from C to AB and labeling the height
h, the area A is
1
A = c.h.
2
From the right angled triangle BXC,

h = a sin B,

hence we have
1
A = ac sin B.
2
Now if we use the identity

sin2 B + cos2 B = 1,

then we have
1 p
A = ac 1 − cos2 B.
2
Since B is an angle in a triangle then 0 < B < 180◦ , sin B > 0 and just the
positive root is needed.

3
The cosine rule gives

b2 = a2 + c2 − 2ac cos B
a2 + c2 − b2
cos B =
2ac
(a 2 + c2 − b2 )2
cos2 B = .
4a2 c2

Hence r
1 (a2 + c2 − b2 )2
A = ac 1 − .
2 4a2 c2
r
a2 c2 4a2 c2 − (a2 + c2 − b2 )2
A=
r 4 4a2 c2
4a c − (a + c2 − b2 )2
2 2 2
A=
16

Using the difference of two squares


r
(2ac − (a2 + c2 − b2 )) (2ac − (a2 + c2 − b2 ))
A=
r 4 4
(b2 − (a − c)2 ) ((a + c)2 − b2 )
A=
4 4

Again we use the difference of two squares


r
b − (a − c) b + (a − c) (a + c) − b (a + c) + b
A= [ ][ ][ ][ ]
r 2 2 2 2
b+c−a a+b−c a+c−b a+b+c
A= [ ][ ][ ][ ]
2 2 2 2

Using S for the semiperimeter we get Hero’s formula

p
A= (S − a)(S − c)(S − b)S.

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