SOLUTION: Three ships are assigned to rescue Ivan as his spaceship plunges into the ocean, The ships are at the vertices of a triangle with sides of 14, 18 and 10 km. Find the area of the oc

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Question 600394: Three ships are assigned to rescue Ivan as his spaceship plunges into the ocean, The ships are at the vertices of a triangle with sides of 14, 18 and 10 km. Find the area of the ocean in the triangular region bounded by the three ships.
I tried using the area formula +A=+%281%2F2%29%2A%28a%2Ab%29%2Asin%28C%29+ but there are no angles. It's not a special triangle like 3, 4, 5. I am very lost.
Answer by jim_thompson5910(35256) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
If you only know 3 sides of a triangle (and no angles), you can use Heron's formula (or Hero's formula) to compute the area of the triangle.

Hero's (or Heron's) formula:


A+=+sqrt%28s%28s-a%29%28s-b%29%28s-c%29%29


where 's' is the semiperimeter and s=%28a%2Bb%2Bc%29%2F2

also,

A is the area
a is the first side length
b is the second side length
c is the third side length