Mistakes that they make that they make...

I have been reading the excellent Why do buses come in threes? by Rob Eastaway and Jeremy Wyndham and it has brought a number of interesting mistakes to my attention. Well mistake is a strong word, I think surprises is a better one and in this post I intend to bring one of them to your attention.


Take for example the Problem of the cricket pitch. Each year a Lord holds a cricket match on his grounds. To make it a more authentic experience he sets up a boundary with a picket fence. This provides the pitch with a 50m radius i.e. one needs to hit the ball 50m to score a 4 or 6. This year however, six metres of fence has been lost...how much shorter does that make the radius of the pitch? (Guess before you read on)

It turns out that it is one metre. Nothing too surprising there. However the story continues. At the very same time somewhere far far away another Alien Race is also playing a form of cricket. Their radius however, is billions of metres wide. By some strange coincidence they have also lost six metres of fence. How much smaller is their radius? (Guess before you read on)

Now the strange thing, at least at first glance, is that their pitch is also smaller by one metre...but why?