Question

A baseball diamond is actually a square with 90 feet between the bases. The pitcher's mound is 60.5 feet from home plate. How far is the pitcher's mound from the first base?
Round all answers to 1 decimal place


I used the Pythagorean theorem and got 66.6. Is that right?

Answer 1

the diagonal is 90√2=127.28 feet, so the mound is not in the center of the diamond (63.64 ft from home).

So, you can't use the Pythagorean Theorem here. Instead, use the law of cosines:

x^2 = 60.5^2 + 90^2 - 2*60.5*90*cos45°
x = 63.72 feet