WKOW 27: Madison, WI Breaking News, Weather and SportsCan dogs do calculus?
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Playing fetch with your pooch might just be fun and games to you, but to your dog it's serious business.
Dr. Pennings from hope college says his dog, Elvis, seems to find the answers to calculus problems without doing calculus.
When Dr. Pennings throws this ball, Elvis wants to get to it as quickly as possible. You could figure out the best route using calculus. Elvis manages to figure it out using instict.
"When I realized how close he was coming to the optimal solution, that was quite a surprise. I wasn't expecting that," said Dr. Tim Pennings.
Since Dr. Penning's discovery, Elvis has been featured in newspapers, magazines, and academic journals around the world.
A couple of years ago, a team of french mathematicians tried to prove elvis wasn't really thinking things through as he chased after his ball.
It turned out they were wrong, and so hope college awarded elvis an honorary degree.
Dr. Pennings says many students are less intimidated by calculus after watching Elvis's display. Unfortunately their grades don't always reflect that.
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