The author\'s cat enjoys chasing chipmunks in the front yard. In this game, the

Question

The author's cat enjoys chasing chipmunks in the front yard. In this game, the cat sits at one edge of a yard that is w = 34 m across (see figure), watching as chipmunks move toward the center. The cat can run faster than a chipmunk, and when a chipmunk moves more than a certain distance L from the far end of the yard, the cat knows that it can catch the chipmunk before the chipmunk disappears into the nearby woods. If the cat's top speed is 7.4 m/s and a chipmunk's top speed is 4.4 m/s, find L. Assume the chipmunk and cat move along the same straight-line path.
m

Explanation / Answer

so once the chipmunk reaches a distance of L from far end, the cat can reach it - now at point L, the chipmunk has to run a distance of L running at speed 4m/s time for chipmunk to run distance L = (L/4) the cat is at the other end of the yard, so the time it will take for the cat to reach the chipmunk will be the time for the cat to reach thhe other end(as the cat and chipmunk should reach the other end at the same time): time for cat = 34/6.8 = some number... so we can set these two equal to each other: L/4 = 34/6.8 ==> L = (34)(4)/6.8 = 20m

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