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.fetch/ my dog does calculous better than your honor student

Sunday, February 26, 2006  Terry

(But apparently I can't spell “calculus”... sigh.) No, really:
Math Trek: Calculating Dogs, Science News Online, Feb. 18, 2006: Depending on the dog's running and swimming speeds, the strategy that Elvis follows appears to minimize the time that it takes to get to the ball. Indeed, Pennings found by experiment that Elvis performs in a way that closely matches a calculus-based mathematical model of the situation. “It seems clear that in most cases Elvis chose a path that agreed remarkably closely with the optimal path,” Pennings argued in the May 2003 College Mathematics Journal.

The Math Instinct: Why You're a Mathematical Genius (Along with Lobsters, Birds, Cats, and Dogs)
by Keith Devlin

Of course, this is entirely negated by the fact that when my dog, Sadie, arrives at the ball, she's generally moving so fast and so anxious to get it and bring it back that she either passes it by or forgets what she was after in the first place. Also, she utterly defers to Pretzel (Alpha) when Pretzel comes anywhere near the ball at the same time as her. Still, the only way Pretzel ever gets to the ball in near the time of Sadie is likely due to her superior math abilities. And she totally has no idea how to work the scientific calculator I got her, so you know she's doing all of this in her head. Good job, Pretz.
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At February 27, 2006 4:08 PM, Anonymous said “Lol - i like your dog blog!”     Add a Comment


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