Quadrilateral Area Given Side Lengths

Date: 8/24/96 at 0:34:55
From: Anonymous
Subject: Area of Quadrilateral of Given Side Lengths

I need to find the area of a 4 sided figure with dimensions of:

  a = Top side = 105
  b = Right    = 230.67
  c = Bottom   = 150
  d = Left     = 182.5

If I draw a diagonal "z" from the top-right (intersection of a&b) 
to the bottom-left (intersection of c&d) it becomes 2 triangles.
Using the law of cosines leaves me with more unknowns than equations.

Date: 8/30/96 at 13:54:15
From: Doctor Jerry
Subject: Re: Area of Quadrilateral of Given Side Lengths

You need one more piece of information before you can calculate the 
area. For example, suppose I told you to find the area of a four-sided 
figure with dimensions of 1 by 1 by 1 by 1.  It could be a square with 
area 1 or it could be a parallelogram.  The area would be very, very 
small if the parallelogram had two angles near 0.

-Doctor Jerry,  The Math Forum
 Check out our web site!  http://mathforum.org/dr.math/