
Way for a Mouse to Escape a Cat, According to Math - Luc
https://www.wired.com/story/the-best-way-for-a-mouse-to-escape-a-cat-according-to-math/
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gooseus
I was wondering if this was going to be an article about the Numberphile
video, and it is.

Video was great, article seems to only add a little of physics to the math in
the video, but does provide some VPython code of the model and prompts to
continue playing with it.

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jmount
Also check out Rado's classic "Lion and Man"
[http://mathworld.wolfram.com/LionandManProblem.html](http://mathworld.wolfram.com/LionandManProblem.html)

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_nalply
Another nut to crack: is the proposed tactic to escape really optimal? I think
there's a variation of the tactic which will take a shorter time to escape.

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chris_va
The mouse could just back away, oscillating back and forth across the radial
line from the cat (forcing the cat to keep changing directions) until it gets
to "dash" distance.

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PhantomGremlin
_(forcing the cat to keep changing directions)_

Ahhh ... there's a difference between this puzzle and the real world. In the
real world a cat can't change directions instantaneously.

In the real world (at least as seen on nature films) the escaping prey is
always forcing the predator into changing directions.

Does anyone know if a mouse can really run faster than a cat? I've got to
believe that those tiny mouse legs are no match for the strides a cat can
take. Isn't the mouse's only hope of survival to quickly get to somewhere
(like a mouse hole) that the cat can't follow?

