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Way for a Mouse to Escape a Cat, According to Math
- gooseus 7y agoI was wondering if this was going to be an article about the Numberphile video, and it is. Video was great, article seems to only add a little of physics to the math in the video, but does provide some VPython code of the model and prompts to continue playing with it.
- jmount 7y agoAlso check out Rado's classic "Lion and Man" http://mathworld.wolfram.com/LionandManProblem.html http://mathworld.wolfram.com/LionandManProblem.html
- _nalply 7y agoAnother nut to crack: is the proposed tactic to escape really optimal? I think there's a variation of the tactic which will take a shorter time to escape.
- chris_va 7y agoThe mouse could just back away, oscillating back and forth across the radial line from the cat (forcing the cat to keep changing directions) until it gets to "dash" distance.
- PhantomGremlin 7y ago(forcing the cat to keep changing directions) Ahhh ... there's a difference between this puzzle and the real world. In the real world a cat can't change directions instantaneously. In the real world (at least as seen on nature films) the escaping prey is always forcing the predator into changing directions. Does anyone know if a mouse can really run faster than a cat? I've got to believe that those tiny mouse legs are no match for the strides a cat can take. Isn't the mouse's only hope of survival to quickly get to somewhere (like a mouse hole) that the cat can't follow?
- saghm 7y agoIf I were a mouse, I'd optimize for maximizing likelihood for successful escape over minimizing the time needed to execute an escape.