Minimization area of triangle

Hi guys,

I'm getting familiar with the fminsearch function for writing a larger optimization problem, but I'm not quite understanding how to use it. I decided to work on basic geometries so my practice question is how would I find the minimum area of a right triangle with my function being .5*b*h keeping my angle theta as small as possible?

[Ameer Hamza]

You need to mathematically define the statement "keeping my angle theta as small as possible". What if I say that the minumum area is zero (b=0 or h=0). How will you decide if angle theta is the smallest possible or not?

[Mike Jane]

You're right. I didn't specify the constraints since this is more of an open ended exercise. We can say theta must be between 5 and 85 degrees for example. Let's say we wanted to go in 5 degree increments, and we know at 0 and 90 we have zero area, and this is trivial so we are not interested in these.