Re: [math-fun] Cool Heron's Formula example

I'm definitely spending too much time on social media; after I read Henry's post, my impulse was to click on "Like". :-) Jim Propp On Tue, Mar 21, 2017 at 12:48 PM, Henry Baker <hbaker1@pipeline.com> wrote:

From John L. Gustafson's discussion with Kahan re floating point:

Triangle with side lengths a,b,c.

a=b=7/2+3*2^(-111), c=7

Units are light-years.

Note that 3*2^(-111) is ~1/200 size of a proton.

Area ~ 55x Earth's surface.

Believe it or not, the triangle altitude is ~ 85 cm ~ 33.5" -- almost a yard.

Don't try this calculation at home; it's Herondisly inaccurate.

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