Heron's formula

A modern proof, which uses algebra and is quite different from the one provided by Heron (in his book Metrica), follows.[8] Let a, b, c be the sides of the triangle and α, β, γ the angles opposite those sides. Applying the law of cosines we get

${\displaystyle \cos \gamma ={\frac {a^{2}+b^{2}-c^{2}}{2ab}}}$

From this proof, we get the algebraic statement that

${\displaystyle \sin \gamma ={\sqrt {1-\cos ^{2}\gamma }}={\frac {\sqrt {4a^{2}b^{2}-(a^{2}+b^{2}-c^{2})^{2}}}{2ab}}.}$

The altitude of the triangle on base a has length b sin γ, and it follows

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}A&={\frac {1}{2}}({\mbox{base}})({\mbox{altitude}})\\&={\frac {1}{2}}ab\sin \gamma \\&={\frac {1}{4}}{\sqrt {4a^{2}b^{2}-(a^{2}+b^{2}-c^{2})^{2}}}\\&={\frac {1}{4}}{\sqrt {(2ab-(a^{2}+b^{2}-c^{2}))(2ab+(a^{2}+b^{2}-c^{2}))}}\\&={\frac {1}{4}}{\sqrt {(c^{2}-(a-b)^{2})((a+b)^{2}-c^{2})}}\\&={\sqrt {\frac {(c-(a-b))(c+(a-b))((a+b)-c)((a+b)+c)}{16}}}\\&={\sqrt {{\frac {(b+c-a)}{2}}{\frac {(a+c-b)}{2}}{\frac {(a+b-c)}{2}}{\frac {(a+b+c)}{2}}}}\\&={\sqrt {{\frac {(a+b+c)}{2}}{\frac {(b+c-a)}{2}}{\frac {(a+c-b)}{2}}{\frac {(a+b-c)}{2}}}}\\&={\sqrt {s(s-a)(s-b)(s-c)}}.\end{aligned}}}$

The difference of two squares factorization was used in two different steps.

Triangle with altitude h cutting base c into d + (c − d).

The following proof is very similar to one given by Raifaizen.[9] By the Pythagorean theorem we have b² = h² + d² and a² = h² + (c − d)² according to the figure at the right. Subtracting these yields a² − b² = c² − 2cd. This equation allows us to express d in terms of the sides of the triangle:

${\displaystyle d={\frac {-a^{2}+b^{2}+c^{2}}{2c}}}$

For the height of the triangle we have that h² = b² − d². By replacing d with the formula given above and applying the difference of squares identity we get

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}h^{2}&=b^{2}-\left({\frac {-a^{2}+b^{2}+c^{2}}{2c}}\right)^{2}\\&={\frac {(2bc-a^{2}+b^{2}+c^{2})(2bc+a^{2}-b^{2}-c^{2})}{4c^{2}}}\\&={\frac {((b+c)^{2}-a^{2})(a^{2}-(b-c)^{2})}{4c^{2}}}\\&={\frac {(b+c-a)(b+c+a)(a+b-c)(a-b+c)}{4c^{2}}}\\&={\frac {2(s-a)\cdot 2s\cdot 2(s-c)\cdot 2(s-b)}{4c^{2}}}\\&={\frac {4s(s-a)(s-b)(s-c)}{c^{2}}}\end{aligned}}}$

We now apply this result to the formula that calculates the area of a triangle from its height:

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}A&={\frac {ch}{2}}\\&={\sqrt {{\frac {c^{2}}{4}}\cdot {\frac {4s(s-a)(s-b)(s-c)}{c^{2}}}}}\\&={\sqrt {s(s-a)(s-b)(s-c)}}\end{aligned}}}$

Geometrical significance of s − a, s − b, and s − c. See the Law of cotangents for the reasoning behind this.

From the first part of the Law of cotangents proof,[10] we have that the triangle's area is both

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}A&=r{\big (}(s-a)+(s-b)+(s-c){\big )}=r^{2}\left({\frac {s-a}{r}}+{\frac {s-b}{r}}+{\frac {s-c}{r}}\right)\\&=r^{2}\left(\cot {\frac {\alpha }{2}}+\cot {\frac {\beta }{2}}+\cot {\frac {\gamma }{2}}\right)\\\end{aligned}}}$

and A = rs, but, since the sum of the half-angles is π/2, the triple cotangent identity applies, so the first of these is

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}A&=r^{2}\left(\cot {\frac {\alpha }{2}}\cot {\frac {\beta }{2}}\cot {\frac {\gamma }{2}}\right)=r^{2}\left({\frac {s-a}{r}}\cdot {\frac {s-b}{r}}\cdot {\frac {s-c}{r}}\right)\\&={\frac {(s-a)(s-b)(s-c)}{r}}\\\end{aligned}}}$

Combining the two, we get

${\displaystyle A^{2}=s(s-a)(s-b)(s-c)}$

from which the result follows.

If U, V, W, u, v, w are lengths of edges of the tetrahedron (first three form a triangle; u opposite to U and so on), then[17]

${\displaystyle {\text{volume}}={\frac {\sqrt {\,(-a+b+c+d)\,(a-b+c+d)\,(a+b-c+d)\,(a+b+c-d)}}{192\,u\,v\,w}}}$

where

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}a&={\sqrt {xYZ}}\\b&={\sqrt {yZX}}\\c&={\sqrt {zXY}}\\d&={\sqrt {xyz}}\\X&=(w-U+v)\,(U+v+w)\\x&=(U-v+w)\,(v-w+U)\\Y&=(u-V+w)\,(V+w+u)\\y&=(V-w+u)\,(w-u+V)\\Z&=(v-W+u)\,(W+u+v)\\z&=(W-u+v)\,(u-v+W).\end{aligned}}}$