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| Our mandatory group photo in front of the Tree of Life |
We arrived at the park as soon as it opened in order to have as much time at the park before our math portion of the day started. Since our first fast pass was not until 11:00, we were given free time to roam the park. For our first ride we took advantage of the short wait time at Expedition Everest, the popular attraction where riders encounter the infamous Yeti as they venture through Mount Everest. From there we went our separate ways to explore the parts of the park that we were most excited about.
Molly:
After riding Expedition Everest, my group decided to journey through the Maharajah Jungle Trek, a wildlife trail in the Asian Section of Animal Kingdom. On the trail we came across many animals native to Asia such as a komodo dragon, a tiger, some water buffalo and various Asian birds. We were very surprised to see that the tiger, water buffalo and deer are all kept in the same enclosure, thinking that there was no way that was safe for the other animals. However we were assured that the tiger is kept very well-fed and usually just keeps to herself in the shade. On our way over to Dinoland, USA we got distracted by some monkeys right outside the Maharajah Trek. We stayed and watched them for a while, fascinated by the way they moved around, swinging from one rope to another. Once we reached Dinoland we decided to ride Primeval Whirl and Dinosaur, which are two very popular, but both very different rides. On Primeval Whirl we were screaming with excitement, while on Dinosaur we were screaming with fear.
Alyssa:
Some of us had so much fun at Mount Everest we decided to partake in the adventure again. Since we were now experienced expeditioners, we knew this time to look behind us during the two instances where the ride stops to see the track spin and redirect our course.Viewing this Disney “secret” was perhaps even more exciting than the Yeti sightings Disney wants you look at. After round two of Everest, we decided we needed our spines realigned so we ventured to Primeval Whirl and received a healthy dose of whiplash. It turns out that great math minds think alike, because we all reunited at Dinosaur. Together we enjoyed the exciting, albeit a bit terrifying end to our Animal Kingdom free time. After the ride Dr. Hutson was sure to point out the ridiculousness of a dinosaur being kind enough to help us with our time traveling mission by holding up the log that let us escape a deadly meteorite shower. This, however, did not phase us because we concluded that any dinosaur wanted by Disney must be of the friendly, life saving variety.
Reunited (and it felt so good):
To ease our fears from riding Dinosaur, we boarded the Kilimanjaro Safari for a relaxing ride through the Harambe Wildlife Reserve, which is dedicated to the protection of many different African animals. On the ride our tour guide pointed out to us a wide variety of animals, ranging from hyenas and flamingos to rhinos and giraffes. The crowd favorite was the giraffe who almost stuck his head in the jeep. We had so much fun trying to spot animals as we rode along and by the end of the ride we had filled the storage on our phones with countless images of every animal.
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| This giraffe came right up to the side of our vehicle |
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| A crash (group) of rhinos |
Following the end of the safari, we made our way to the Festival of the Lion King, a show filled with singing, dancing and tumbling monkeys celebrating King Simba. The energy was so high that we couldn't keep ourselves from singing along to our favorite songs, such as "Circle of Life", "I Just Can't Wait to be King", "Hakuna Matata" and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight".
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| The finale of Festival of the Lion King |
Post Animal Kingdom Fun
To celebrate the completion of visiting all four parks we all went to 7-Eleven to cheer our accomplishment with Slurpees. After that it was back to business, all of the attractions and adventure left us itching to do some math. In the previous days we learned how to model operation problems, but today we finally got to learn the most important part--how to solve them. First, we were introduced to a software called Mosel which basically does all of the hard calculating work for us. The user inputs the objective function, variable declarations, and constraints and the Mosel returns the optimal solution almost instantaneously!
To introduce how to think about solving this type of problem, Caroline graciously volunteered to step outside the “classroom” and be blindfolded. We then placed a Clif Bar on the floor, and when she re-entered the room she was allowed ask yes/no questions to direct herself to the prize. From this activity we learned that there are three types of questions you can ask when solving a snack finding problem, “Can I move?, Should I move?, How far can I move?”. It turns out that trying to find a snack while blindfolded is pretty similar to finding an optimal solution, because those are the exact same questions you ask when searching a graph for the right intersection of our constraints.
For the rest of the night, we were given time to work on our group project. In this problem we are trying to create a work schedule for a Disney restaurant, where each group has to wrestle a different set of constraints. It may to be hard to believe now, but this time next week each group will have a solution to what now seems like a Mount Everest of a problem.
Written by:
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| Molly |
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| Alyssa |
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