Vector Maths

It has been a reasonably productive office day. I took the dogs for a quick tramp up Machine Gun Hill at Achaderry while the girls got a run in. They have stepped up to 6k today and felt quite comfortable at the end.
I know the dogs don’t feature in the blip today but I am always interested (and amused) at their behaviour in certain situations on the walk. With the ball flinger charged ready to be launched Bob always stands closer slightly turned ready for that initial burst of acceleration. Caley stands three or four paces further back almost fully side on in an apparent state of greater anticipation. He seems to have worked out that on balance that the ball is going to go over Bob’s and then his own head and thus he will have that four pace advantage when the race proper starts. To even things out the ball may go behind me or sideways and to be absolutely fair a second ball is launched quickly after so that no one loses out though at various stages I have seen both boys carrying two tennis balls and reluctantly having to drop one for his pal because it was such a mouthful to try and run with.
Anyway, nearing the end of the walk it is good housekeeping to get the guys to have a wee swim to clean up a bit. Both boys are excellent swimmers but for them it is a means to an end. Poor Bruce, absolutely loved his morning swim and it was a swim for a swim’s sake. A careful cautious approach, a few wee circles in the lochan, came out, a shake and on with the walk. Curiously he always stood at the side waiting for the command or at least a nod of approval before he entered. With the yellow boys you just pitch the ball in to the middle of the lochan. My lob this morning was a slightly errant one as it splashed down nearer the far end and the events that unfolded were so funny. Bob jumped straight in off the bank nearest me and started swimming like mad towards the ball. Caley stood briefly and thought about the situation then hared off round the pond perimeter. When he reached the point mathematically nearest to the ball he splashed in too. Bob was well on his way by this time but Caley having given himself only four yards to swim snatched the ball from the surface with Bob a foot away.
Quite a lot of cad work and email correspondence filled up the rest of the day. I did fancy some evening fresh air so Caley and I headed up Maol Ruadh again just as it got dark with the ball flinger of course. I don’t know if his morning display of tactical ball retrieval is down to dead reckoning or if he can do complex vector based maths in his head but in addition to that he has the magical ability to retrieve the ball in near darkness.
This is the view down the valley from the top of Maol Ruadh.

(Vecor; a quantity which has both direction and magnitude; force, speed)