Learning from Light
Picture yourself as a cop. You are in your jeep (which is stationary) on a patch of sand which happens to be one one of the sides of a cement road. On the other side of the cement road, there is an identical patch of sand on which there is a notorious criminal in his vehicle. You have been assigned to capture the criminal and bring him to justice. To chase him, you need to approach him in your vehicle, but there is a catch. As soon as you start, the criminal will hear the sound of your engine. As of now, he/she doesn’t know where you are but the hum of your engine will give yourself away. You need to find the fastest path to the culprit and remember your jeep is much faster on the road than it is on the dust track. The question here is, — what will the fastest path look like? The answer may surprise you at first. The fastest way to get to the criminal will be by meeting the road at a 42 degree angle. This is because of Fermat’s Principle . Here we introdu...