Here’s another way to do this. It’s a variation of Cramer’s rule. With this you don’t have to take the square root.
CPhill’s use of Heron's Formula is better because you are less likely to make a mistake.
Area of Triangle with vertices of A(-8,10) , B(6,17), C(2,-4)
Note that ABS is absolute value.
ABS(0.5[Xa(Yb –Yc) + Xb(Yc –Ya) + Xc(Ya –Yb) ])
ABS(0.5[-8(17-(-4)) + 6(-4-10) + 2(10-17))
ABS(0.5[8(21) + 6(-14) + (2(-7)])
ABS(0.5[-168 + (-84) + (-14)])
ABS(0.5[-266]
ABS( -133) = 133 acres
_7UP_