Areas of spherical and hyperbolic triangles in terms of their midpoints

Abstract: Let

M

be either the 2-sphere

S S^{2} s u b s e t R R^{3}

or the hyperbolic plane

H H^{2} s u b s e t R R^{3}

. If

D e l t a (a b c)

is a geodesic triangle on

M

with corners at

a, b, c i n M

, we denote by

the midpoints of their sides. If

O m e g a

denotes the oriented area of this triangle on

M

, it satisfies the relations:

sin(Omega/2) = frac{Det_3(abc)}{sqrt{2(1 + scalar{a}b)(1 + scalar{b}c)(1 + scalar{c}a)}} = Det_3(alpha�etagamma) ,

where

s c a l a r

denotes the Euclidean scalar product for

M = S S^{2}

and the Lorentzian scalar product for

M = H H^{2}

. On the hyperbolic plane one should always take the solution with

m o d u O m e g a / 2 < p i / 2

. On the sphere, singular cases excepted, a straightforward procedure tells us which solution of this equation is the correct one.

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