Algorithm for Triangles Classification

• Download TriangleType.zip - 851 B

Introduction

Triangles are classified depending on relative sizes of their elements.

As regards their sides, triangles may be:

• Scalene (all sides are different)
• Isosceles (two sides are equal)
• Equilateral (all three sides are equal)

And as regards their angles, triangles may be:

• Acute (all angles are acute)
• Right (one angle is right)
• Obtuse (one angle is obtuse)

Obs: 

1. One of the properties of the triangles is that the sum of the lengths of any two sides  is greater than the length of the third side.
2. There is a special type of triangle, called a degenerate triangle. formed by three collinear points. It doesn’t look like a triangle, it looks like a line segment. In this case, one of its sides is equal to the sum of the other

In this tip, we will develop an algorithm that determines the type of a triangle, given its sides.

Using the Code

The algorithm below was implemented in the Lua language using the ZeroBrane Studio IDE:

--[[--
TriangleType
Determines the type of the triangle by the sides and by the angles 

Language: Lua

2018, Jose Cintra
josecintra@josecintra.com
--]]--

-- Compare two floats
local function almostEquals(a, b)  
  threshold = 0.00001
  diff = math.abs(a - b) -- Absolute value of difference
  return (diff < threshold) 
end

-- Determines the type of the triangle by the sides and by the angles 
local function triangleType(a,b,c) 
  local bySide,byAngle = nil

  if (a <= (b + c) and b <= (a + c) and c <= (a + b)) then

    --Type of the triangle by sides
    if ( a == b and b == c ) then
      bySide = 1 -- Equilateral
    elseif (a == b or b == c or a == c) then
      bySide = 2 -- Isosceles
    else
      bySide = 3 -- Scalene
    end  

    --Type of the triangle by Angle
    if almostEquals(a,(b + c)) or almostEquals(b,(a + c)) or almostEquals(c,(a + b))  then
      byAngle = 4 -- Degenerate
    elseif almostEquals(a^2,(b^2 + c^2)) or almostEquals(b^2,(a^2 + c^2)) or almostEquals(c^2,(a^2 + b^2))  then
      byAngle = 1 -- Right
    elseif (a^2 > b^2 + c^2) or (b^2 > a^2 + c^2) or (c^2 > a^2 + b^2)  then
      byAngle = 2 -- Obtuse
    else
      byAngle = 3 -- Acute
    end

  end

  return bySide,byAngle

end  

-- Main routine

local bySideTypes = {"Equilateral","Isosceles","Scalene"}
local byAngleTypes = {"Right","Obtuse","Acute","Degenerate"}

print("Triangle Type\n")
print("Enter the value of A side: ")
local a = tonumber(io.read())
print("Enter the value of B side: ")
local b = tonumber(io.read())
print("Enter the value of C side: ")
local c = tonumber(io.read())

local bySide,byAngle = triangleType(a,b,c)

if (bySide ~= nil) then
  print ("The type of the triangle is " .. bySideTypes[bySide] .. "/" .. byAngleTypes[byAngle])
else
  print ("These sides do not form a triangle")
end
  
-- end  

Points of Interest

The following points should be taken into account for the understanding of the algorithm:

1. To obtain the type of the triangle according to its angles, we use the Pythagorean theorem. Like this.
2. In the Lua language, a function can return more than one value.
3. For comparison of float values, we use the almostEquals function, which can be adjusted according to your need, in the threshold variable.
4. For the sake of "good practices", we have resolved to encode the types of triangles in an array.

History

21 Oct 2018 - Initial version
27 Oct 2018 - Added "degenerate triangles" and almostEquals function

References

1. https://study.com/academy/lesson/types-of-triangles-their-properties.html
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2Lt-jU3IJc

Last Words

Thanks for reading!
The source code for this algorithm is also available on GitHub at: MathAlgorithms