In the diagram I have shown the two houses with Chimayo’s beingnorth of Alec’s. The orange lines you see is the path that Alec will take.We know that it would be a line to the river and then a line to thehouse because going straight is the fastest. Now in the diagram I havemarked the distance of his rout in relation to x (a distance east of Alec’s house on the river). Why are trying to figure out when x is what,our distance will be the smallest. Now I have labeled the two lines bythe Pythagorean Theorem, and they are quite complicated. Now wemust dive into some Calculus. If you’re trying to figure out when thedistance will be the smallest it will be at a critical point in the graph.And critical points are found by taking the derivative of the function.
Leave a Comment