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Triangle whose sides and altitude are consecutive

Question

A triangle has three side lengths and one altitude that, taken together, form four consecutive positive integers. Find its area.

Short answer

84. The 1313–1414–1515 triangle works: by Heron's formula its area is 21⋅8⋅7⋅6=84\sqrt{21\cdot 8\cdot 7\cdot 6}=84, so the altitude onto the side of length 1414 is 2⋅84/14=122\cdot 84/14=12, and 12,13,14,1512,13,14,15 are consecutive.

Adapted from QuantQuestions.io; question and answer rewritten by SelfMadeQuant.com.

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