There is a table which have several brown lines, each distance is .
Buffon is going to throw a blue needle, which length is , on the table.
If the probability of the needle to touch at least one brown line is , compute .
Details:
1) .
2) (It is a long needle!)
3) Assume that the probability of Buffon throw the needle at different direction is equally distributed.
Bonus: Generalize it.
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Let the probability of the needle touch at least one of the brown lines at direction θ is P ( θ ) .
because only the ratio of L to d make sense to this question but not the value of L and d separately, let the ratio λ = L d , for this question, λ = 0 . 2 .
When s i n θ ≤ λ ,
P ( θ ) = λ s i n θ
When s i n θ > λ ,
P ( θ ) = 1 , this says that when θ between some interval, the needle must touch at least one of the brown lines.
Using Desmos Graphing Calculator,
The shaded region is the area under P ( θ ) .
Because all direction are equally distributed,
A = π A r e a s h a d e d r e g i o n , denominator is the length of horizontal.
Noted that orange line represent x = s i n − 1 λ , purple line represent x = π − s i n − 1 λ .
π A = A r e a s h a d e d r e g i o n = 2 ∫ 0 s i n − 1 λ λ s i n θ d θ + π − 2 s i n − 1 λ
After some calculation,
A = λ π 2 ( 1 − 1 − λ 2 ) + 1 − π 2 s i n − 1 λ = 0 . 9 3 6 1 2 3 2 2 3 2
So,
⌊ 1 0 0 0 0 A ⌋ = 9 3 6 1 .