The February 19, 2007 PoW

A sea otter is 10 meters from a very long and straight river, with a large river bank. We call this point (0,10). A wolf suddenly appears at the point (-7, 13). The otter heads directly to a point on the river bank to jump in to safety. The wolf heads to the exact same point that the otter is heading toward, hoping to get there first. If the sea otter runs at 8 m/s and the wolf runs at 12 m/s, find the point (to three decimal places) that the sea otter should run to, so that it reaches that point with the most time to spare. That is, find the point on the river bank so that if both animals head toward that point, the difference between the the wolf's time and the otter's time is a maximum. (See diagram below.) Calculus can be used, or the appropriate equation can be solved with a graphing calculator.

otter

Also, for a given otter speed, vo, a given initial starting point for the otter, (0,yo), and a given wolf speed, vw, find the envelope of safety for the otter. That is, find the equation of the curve so that if the wolf is on the outside of the curve, the otter can reach a point on the river bank before the wolf. (It will be a tie if the wolf starts on the curve.) Calculus must be used here.