what is wrong with my function

here is the Question that I want to Answre:

(Write a function called tri_area that returns the area of a triangle with base b and height h, where b and h are input arguments of the function in that order.)

function area = tri_area(b,h)
area = b*h;
end

[SWARNENDU DUTTA]

function area = tri_area(b, h)
    area = (0.5*b*h)
end
   

[Francisco Moto]

the area of a triangle is 0.5*b*h not b*h

Answer 1

[Sanket Dahat]

function area=tri_area(b,h)
area=b*h/2;
end

Answer 2

[Stephan]

You calculate the area of a rectangle. Think about the formula of triangle area...

Answer 3

[Muhammad Haris Anwar]

function area = tri_area(b,h)
tri_area=0.5*b*h
end

Answer 4

[Mrinal kant Priyadarshi]

function area= tri_area(b,h)
tri_area(b,h)= (0.5)*(b)*(h)
area= tri_area(b,h)
end

[Walter Roberson]

If b and h happen to be positive integers, then the assignment on the first line would work, creating an array that is b rows high and h columns, with all the values set to 0 except for the very bottom corner that would be set to (0.5)*(b)*(h) . You would then retrieve that location to create the output. This seems a bit of a waste to create that array.

If either b or h is not a positive integer, such as if b were 2.5 and h were 5, then the assignment on your second line would fail.

You have confused arrays and formulas. In MATLAB, you create formulas using @, such as

function area= tri_area(b,h)
  TA = @(b,h) (0.5)*(b)*(h);
  area = TA(b,h);
end