A little disconcertingly I generated the data of a triangle with integral sides in a spreadsheet. The area calculation suggested that it had zero area.

Knowing there was an obvious contradiction I wrote a computer listing to see if there were others which fitted this situation, and yes, there was an infinite number.

Clearly I am doing something wrong, explain.

(In reply to re: most likely way by brianjn)

Charlie, I don't have the spreadsheet saved so I don't know what lead me to propose this. 

I have found my listing and looking at it and my results I did have triangular areas for some.  At the time I was playing with Heron's area of triangle formula when I got what was, at the time an apparent contradiction. 

Smack my knuckles, but I didn't look at any of the side values being half-perimeter.  I did however note that one value could create a "0" multiplier and therefore lead me into this faux pas.

Edited on December 31, 2009, 12:02 am

Posted by brianjn on 2009-12-30 23:52:06