To test this relationship, I took Elvis to Lake Michigan on a calm day when the
waves were small. I fixed a measuring tape about 15 meters down the beach at C from
where Elvis and I stood at A as I threw the ball. After throwing it, I raced after Elvis,
plunging a screwdriver into the sand at the place where he entered the water at D.
Then I quickly grabbed the free end of the tape measure and raced him to the ball. I
was then able to get both the distance from the ball to the shore, x, and the distance y.
If my throw did not land close to the line perpendicular to the shoreline and passing
through C, I did not take measurements. I also omitted the couple of times when Elvis,
in his haste and excitement, jumped immediately into the water and swam the entire
distance. I figured that even an “A” student can have a bad day. We spent three hours
getting 35 pieces of data. We stopped only when the waves grew. Elvis had no interest
in stopping or slowing down. The data are in Table 2.