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The 6 inches you're missing has to do with how the plate is measured.
The plate, of course, is 17" across the front. The "sides of the house" are 8.5" long, but that's at a 45-degree angle to the baseline. Using the pythagorean theorum (rearranged: a = (sqrt(c^2))/2), you've got a few hairs over 6" in that distance. From the sides of the house to the "tip of the roof," the distance is a few hairs over 12", and that can be determined by knowing that the distance from the front of the plate to the tip of the roof is 17" (thus the dish is 17" square with two corners cut off to give it the "home" appearance), subtract the 8.5" for the sides and we've got a height of 8.5" to the roof. The pythagorean theorum, again, is needed to get 12" (a^2 + b^2 = c^2). Thus, we've got 12" + 6" = 18". ;o)
(In both calculations, a = b, and c = 8.5")
-Sir Eldren
No, I'm not a math major, but I tutor advanced algebra and trigonometry ;o)
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