Minn. Dog Uses Calculus To Play Fetch
WINONA, Minn. (WCCO) -- Dogs can do some amazing things, but are they even smarter than we give them credit for being?
Take Elvis, a Welsh Corgi. His owner -- a math professor at Winona State University -- says Elvis can solve calculus problems.
A standard calculus problem is to find the quickest path from a point on shore to a point in the lake.
Dr. Timothy Pennings says Elvis does exactly that when playing fetch.
"When I did all the math calculations to figure out exactly where should he jump into the water in order to get there in the shortest time, it turns out he jumps into the water within about a foot of the optimal point each time," he said.
Pennings isn't the only one who believes this theory. Several other scientists have written about this phenomenon.
