The Hounds of Haviland

The “Tiger Woods” of Physics & Math?

In addition to looking for meteorites in the field, I do school shows to try and find a few math or physics prodigies that can take the human race to the next level of understanding. Currently we have data that implies, if the Einstein-Space-Time theories are correct then 74% of the universe consists of something we know almost nothing about or if it exists at all. Quite a puzzle!

Progress since Professor Einstein’s miracle years has been stagnant. I believe we are at a similar situation as in the early 1900’s when the Michelson- Morley experiment generated data to imply the speed of light is constant in any inertial reference frame. In the early 2000’s, who can solve the puzzle of dark energy and a flat Euclidian Universe?

So, can your student or child solve this problem? When Karl Gauss was a child, he could add the numbers between 1 & 100 in seconds because he

could see that:

1+100=101

2+99=101

3+98=101

so 50 x 101 = 5050, wow, what insight. Most of us plod along adding 1+2 =3+3=6…boring!

So here is a little problem given me by G. Barker, also in M. Gardner’s problems:

A dog chases a cat and always runs toward the cat at a constant speed. The cat starts at 0,1 and the dog starts at 0,0. If the dog catches the cat a 1,1 then how fast does he run? The cat runs at 1 unit of distance per time.

Here is a picture:

This is a classic problem in astrophysics. As it turns out, there are several ways to solve this problem, some use geometry, some use differential calculus. But, it turns out there is a very simple solution, takes about 5 minutes (with proof) to obtain the correct answer if you have the insight.

Do you know the “Tiger Woods of Physics and Math”? If so, maybe we can encourage him/her to take the human race to the next level.