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    Krauseproblems

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    Krauseproblems

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    825 views3 pages

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    krauseproblems

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    825 views3 pages

    Krauseproblems

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    The most common application of Taxicab Geometry comes from its name.

    It alludes to the paths


    taxicabs take on a grid of horizontal and vertical streets. In his book on the subject, Krause
    provides a plethora of real-world problems that involve various aspects of taxicab geometry
    through the characters of Alice and Bruno who reside in Ideal City (a play on the ideal
    conditions needed for taxicab geometry). The first of such problems is the following:

    Alice and Bruno are looking for an apartment in Ideal City. Alice works as an acrobat at
    amusement park A = (-3, -1). Bruno works as a bread taster in bakery B = (3, 3). Being
    ecologically aware, they walk wherever they go. They have decided their apartment should be
    located so that the distance Alice has to walk to work plus the distance Bruno has to walk to
    work is as small as possible. Where should they look for an apartment (p. 14)?

    We first assume that the streets of Ideal City are all horizontal and vertical, and Alice and Bruno
    must walk up and down these streets to get where they need to go. We can then solve this
    problem by looking at the definition of taxicab distance, which is the minimum sum of lengths of
    horizontal and vertical segments from one point to another. We can find this distance by using
    the taxicab distance formula:

    |33| |31| || |4| 1

    So we know that the distance between their two jobs is 10 units. Since the two jobs are not
    located horizontally or vertically from each other, two or more segments must be used to get
    from one of the jobs to the other. The minimum number of segments that can be used for this is
    two. There are two situations where we can find these two paths:



    This creates a rectangle. Any series of horizontal and vertical segments that lies inside this
    rectangle will produce the same taxicab distance of 10:



    Since these different paths vary but must lie in the same rectangle, Alice and Bruno would want
    to search for an apartment inside the area of this rectangle.

    Unlike the rare number of teachers would implement taxicab geometry in their classes, Krause
    does not restrict all of his problems to ones such as the above that only involves calculating
    taxicab distance. He also incorporates conics and other areas of the geometry with his problems
    about Alice and Bruno, such as the following problem:

    Alice and Bruno still dont have an apartment. Their latest agreement is that neither person
    should have to walk more than 4 blocks farther to work than the other person. Where can they
    look (p. 29)?

    Since we know that the maximum difference that the two distances can have is 4, we can find
    the area that would work by finding the set of points where the common difference from the first
    point, A, and the second point, B, is 4. This is the very definition of a hyperbola. Therefore, we
    know that we have the following equation:

    |x3| |y1||x3| |y3| 4

    If we put this equation in Graphing Calculator 4.0 along with the points A and B, we obtain the
    following graph:



    To find where Bruno and Alice should live, they should look along this line segment. To find
    similar problems involving other aspects of Taxicab Geometry, read the rest of Krauses book.
    He provides a plethora of problems involving Alice, Bruno, and Ideal City.

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