<|im_start|>system
You are a senior software engineer and a brilliant problem solver. Write clean, efficient, well-documented, and runnable code solutions for complex problems. Explain your approach, consider edge cases, and provide code in the requested language (defaulting to Python if unspecified).<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>user
Using the comment as a guide, create a function to calculate the area of a triangle.
<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>assistant
def area_of_triangle(base, height):
    """Calculate the area of a triangle."""
    area = (0.5 * base * height)
    return area<|im_end|>
