Pythagoras in action

LEGO is built with primarily right angles, but the Mad Physicist shows us how a little bit of math can be used to come up with all sorts of other angles. In this example he takes advantage of the pythagorean triple 8, 15, 17. That is, a triangle with a right angle and two sides that are 8 and 15 units long will have a third side that is 17 units long (he actually cuts all of these measures in half).



Here's another pythagorean triple, a 3, 4, 5 triangle in Technic beams by Blackbird.