I'm trying to build an app which computes the area of a triangle, as per my homework assignment. Not quite sure where I'm going wrong, but I input the lengths of the triangle and would like the proper area displayed according to Heron's formula: sqrt (s(s-a) (s-b) (s-c))
. All I'm getting for output is -0.0
. Here is the code:
import java.lang.Math;
public class Formula
{
double area; double s;
public double findArea(double sideA, double sideB, double sideC)
{
s = 1/2 * (sideA + sideB + sideC);
area = Math.sqrt(s*(s-sideA)*(s-sideB)*(s-sideC));
System.out.println("The area of the triangle is " + area);
return area;
}
}
And then I have another file for the main args
import java.util.Scanner;
public class findTriangleArea {
/**
* @param args
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
Formula triangle = new Formula();
double a,b,c;
// input triangle lengths a, b, c
Scanner inputTriangle = new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.println("Please enter triangle side a");
a = inputTriangle.nextDouble();
System.out.println("Please enter triangle side b");
b = inputTriangle.nextDouble();
System.out.println("Please enter triangle side c");
c = inputTriangle.nextDouble();
triangle.findArea(a, b, c);
}
}
1/2
is being computed in integer arithmetic, so like with all integer division, it's truncated -- in this case, to 0
. Just write 0.5
and you'll be fine.