title: How do I calculate the area of a 2d polygon?
body: <p>Assuming a series of points in 2d space that do not self-intersect, what is an efficient method of determining the area of the resulting polygon?</p>
  
  <p>As a side note, this is not homework and I am not looking for code.  I am looking for a description I can use to implement my own method.  I have my ideas about pulling a sequence of triangles from the list of points, but I know there are a bunch of edge cases regarding convex and concave polygons that I probably won't catch.</p>