Numerical Stability
Heron's formula as given above is numerically unstable for triangles with a very small angle. A stable alternative involves arranging the lengths of the sides so that and computing
The brackets in the above formula are required in order to prevent numerical instability in the evaluation.
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Famous quotes containing the words numerical and/or stability:
“The terrible tabulation of the French statists brings every piece of whim and humor to be reducible also to exact numerical ratios. If one man in twenty thousand, or in thirty thousand, eats shoes, or marries his grandmother, then, in every twenty thousand, or thirty thousand, is found one man who eats shoes, or marries his grandmother.”
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