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Herons Formula
Objective: To use this formula to
calculate the area of a non right
triangle, having only the lengths of
the sides.

Who is Heron?
Heron of Alexandria (also called Hero) was a Geometer of
Egypt. There is some confusion as to the date he lived, but
generally it appears that he was born in approximately 10
AD and died in 75 AD. (Believe it or not, his name was
pretty common, so determining lifetime of the Heron that
we are thinking of is tough)
He was most likely a teacher at the Museum in Alexandria.
Notes attributed to him appear to be lecture notes on
Physics, Mathematics, Pneumatics and mechanics.
He proved Heron's Formula in Book 1 of the Metrica, a
work that outlines methods of measurement.

Herons Formula
Used to find the area of non-right
triangles.
Only the lengths of the sides of the triangle
are needed. (Not the height)

Herons Formula
First the semiperimeter must be found
(semiperimeter is half of the perimeter)

1
s (a b c)
2
Next, use this to calculate the area by the
formula: area s ( s a )( s b)( s c)

Example
Given ABC with a = 3, b = 4 and c = 5,
find the area using Herons Formula.
Calculate s: s = (3 + 4+ 5) = 6
Then area = 6(6 3)(6 4)(6 5)

a = 6(3)(2)(1)

36 6

Examples
Given ABC with a = 4 in, b = 4 in and c = 6
in, find the area using Herons formula.

area = 7.9 in2

Resources
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Heron.html
Sobel, Max, Lerner, Norbert, (1995) Precalculus mathematics 5th Edition,
Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall, Inc.