Running Head: GEORGE THE SLUG 1

Introduction

Lord Greene needs help tracking George, which is a slug that eats Lady Greenes begonias
in their estates back yard. According to the gardeners, George usually appears at midnight and
moves in distinct counter-clockwise pattern after eating. Lord Greene intends for us to place a
small amount of specially engineered tracking dust in Georges path.

Problem Statement

Because the dust is extremely expensive, were allocated a very small amount. Also, we
only have access to the yard for five minutes at 5:00pm and, as per Lady Greenes instructions,
we may not place the dust near the begonias. Given these restrictions, our plan is to place the
dust in Georges path five minutes after he has traveled by the begonias. The challenge is in
predicting exactly where he will be at this time.

Objectives

Our primary objective is to find out Georges position five and 60 minutes after he has
traveled by the begonias. Even though he travels counter-clockwise in a circular pattern, finding
his position is difficult since his distance, r, from the center of the yard is constantly
decreasing. Because of this, the standard equation of a circle,

, and its
accompanying parametric forms, () (), cannot be used
until r at five and 60 minutes is determined.

Strategy

To overcome the difficulty of the Georges changing distance and speed, his journey is
divided it into many time intervals in order to obtain an approximation of his position. By doing
this, we are increasing the likelihood that the changes in his distances from the center of the yard
are kept to a minimum within each interval. By using the Law of Cosines, we can calculate the
distance, r, for each partition. At the final r, we can then apply the parametric equation of a
circle to determine Georges coordinates.

Methodology

We are given some pieces of crucial information. First, we know that the begonias are
located 30ft east and 20ft north of the center of the yard. These are the (x,y) coordinates since
we are representing the yard in terms of a coordinate plane with the origin, (0,0) being the center.

GEORGE THE SLUG 2

Second, the begonias lie at angle from the x-axis, and George always moves in the
direction of the vector determined by his distance from the center, r, and +91 with a speed of

ft/min. The steps in our calculations are outlined in the illustration below:


Because we know the location of the begonias to be 30ft east and 20ft north of the center of
the yard, we can find by calculating the arctangent of 20/30 in STEP 1. This is determined to
be 0.588 radians (33.69 degrees).

By applying the Pythagorean Theorem, we find r to be 36.00555127546 feet in STEP 2.
This r represents our starting distance and is not Georges final distance from the center.

We know that the angle on one side of a straight line is radians (180 degrees). Since the
lines representing Georges travel direction are parallel, we can determine that the angle
indicated by the arrow in STEP 3 to be 1.55 radians (89 degrees). This angle is constant within
each time interval.

The distance traveled within a time interval is calculated with the distance = velocity*time
formula. For increased accuracy, we break up Georges trip into 500,000 intervals, leaving us
with the change in time (t) of 0.00001 when calculating for five minutes. Using this and the
velocity of

ft/min, we can conclude that the distance traveled within the first partition in
STEP 4 to be 0.0005160226 feet.

With the information from STEP 2, STEP 3, and STEP 4, we can apply the Law of
Cosines,

() to find r2 in STEP 5. This comes out to

36.0555037525 feet, which is a very small decrease in distance from r.

In STEP 6, we use the Law of Sines,

to find the angle designated

by the arrow. This angle is calculated to be 0.0000143097 radians, and is added to to account
for the change in ().

STEPS 4, 5, and 6 are repeated for each time interval until we reach our time goals. After
five minutes, Georges distance from the center is 31.8486474558 feet, and is 7.699 radians
(81.096 degrees). At this point, we apply the parametric equation of a circle to obtain his
location. The same process is used to find his location after 60 minutes (refer to attached excel
sheet for formulas and results).
GEORGE THE SLUG 3

Results

Starting distance from the center: 36.0555127546 feet
Starting : 0.5880026035 radians (33.3600675260 degrees)
Final distance from center after five minutes: 31.8486474558 feet
Final after five minutes: 7.6985690514 radians (81.0955149357 degrees)
Final distance from center after 60 minutes: 8.9762223790 feet
Final after 60 minutes: 80.6159575332 radians (298.9541280571 degrees)

Final x-coordinate after five minutes: 4.9297796035
Final y-coordinate after five minutes: 31.4647996629

Final x-coordinate after 60 minutes: 4.3454721044
Final y-coordinate after 60 minutes: -7.8542625616

Conclusion

According to our findings, George the slug moves closer to the center of the yard as more
time passes by. We have two choices of where to place Lord Greenes allotment of tracking
dust, each with their own benefits and disadvantages. On one hand, in order to protect Lady
Greenes begonias from the chemicals, it may be wise to place the dust where George is
expected to be after 60 minutes since its further away than the alternative. On the other hand,
because the dust is very costly and were only given a small amount, it would make sense to
place it in the location we expect George to be after five minutes to minimize any margin of
error.