Image 3-6: Home Plate and its errorsLooking at the right triangle, its hypotenuse has a length of 17 inches. If
each leg of the triangle has a length x, then by the Pythagorean Theorem
the sum of the squares of the legs has to be the square of the hypotenuse.
x^2 +x^2 = 189
2 x^2 = 189
x^2 = 189 ÷ 2
x= 17 ÷√ 2 = 12. 02 inTheoretically, the sloping sides must be slightly longer than 12 inches!
The calculation is still incorrect even if we set the equation in terms of
the hypotenuse, by switching 17 to x, 12^2 +12^2 =x^2 =16.96^2 . While the
error is quite small, baseball is a game of numbers. Maybe the next