Garett Tolliver Cow Problem
- Author:
- GarettTolliver
A farmhand needs to take a bucket of water to her cow. She must go to the river first and fill up the bucket. What path should she take to minimize the distance to the cow, if she must stop by the river first?
1. The point E which is located on the line labeled River, minimizes the distance that the farmhand has to travel. The total distance traveled is 11.4 which is the lowest I could get it to be.
2. I honestly cant figure out why this is the smallest distance. I have been looking at this for almost 2 hours and it isn't coming to me. My geometry is a little rusty, as I haven't taken it since freshman year of high school. I really want to figure out this answer. I was thinking that if I minimized the distance from E to the cow, then I would have my answer, but that didn't work.