I asked my teacher for a hint and he said that the pitcher's mound is not the radius. Am I supposed to assume that a side of a baseball diamond is 90? But that information wasn't given.....

Question

Still confused.

If home plate is 60.5 feet from the pitcher's mound, find the distance from the pitcher's mound of a major league baseball field to the center of a circumscribed circle that touches home plate, 1st base and second base. Find the exact, simplified length of the radius of that circumscribed circle.

I am confused about exactly what this question is asking. Can you head me in the right direction?

Answer 1

I see the question has changed. Before, you just asked for the radius of the circle, which, if the diamond is 90 ft on a side, is just 90/√2 = 63.639 ft. Where the mound was did not matter.

Now, you are asking how far from the pitcher's mound to the center of the circle. Since the radius is 63.639' and the mound is 60.5' from home, the mound is 3.139' from the center of the circle.
Or, more exactly, 90/√2 - 60.5

Is that better?

Answer 2

While the question did not state the dimensions of the field, a quick web search will confirm that the field is 90' on a side, in the shape of a square.