Two points in a strange shape

A strange shape can be made by joining two semi-ellipses with the same major axis but different minor axes. The above image is an example of one such shape. It is drawn in the complex plane as indicated by the axes.

The blue region is a semi-ellipse with semi-minor axis ( + I m ) (+Im) of length 3 3 . The pink region is a semi-ellipse with semi-minor axis ( I m ) (-Im) of length 4 4 . The major axis ( R e ) (Re) , common to both semi-ellipses, has a length of 10 10 .

Now, a complex number, z 1 z_{1} , is randomly selected from the blue region, and another complex number z 2 z_2 is randomly selected from the pink region.

Let P P be the probability that arg ( z 1 ) = arg ( z 2 ) , \arg (z_1) = - \arg (z_ 2), then what is 100 P ? \lfloor 100P \rfloor?

Details and assumptions

  • z 1 0 |z_{1}| \neq 0

  • z 2 0 |z_{2}| \neq 0

  • arg ( z ) \arg(z) is the argument of the complex number z . z. Its range is ( π , π ] . (-\pi, \pi].

  • R e Re and I m Im represent the real and the imaginary axes, respectively.

This problem is a part of the set - A Strange Shape .


The answer is 0.

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1 solution

Pranshu Gaba
Mar 30, 2014

For any randomly chosen point z 1 z_1 , let arg ( z 1 ) = φ \arg (z_1) = \varphi

Then the favourable outcome would be arg ( z 2 ) = arg ( z 1 ) = φ \arg (z_2) = - \arg (z_ 1) = - \varphi

The locus of z 2 z_2 giving favourable is just a line segment at an angle of φ \varphi below the positive real axis. Let this line segment be O A OA

The sample space of point z 2 z_2 is the entire pink region.

As P = favourable outcomes sample space P = \dfrac{\textrm{favourable outcomes}}{\textrm{sample space}}

P = Area of line segment p O A Area of semi-ellipse P = \dfrac{\textrm{Area of line segment} \phantom{p }OA}{\textrm{Area of semi-ellipse}}

By definition, the area of a line segment is 0 0 , therefore P = 0 \boxed{P = 0}

This means the favourable outcome will almost never occur, or the unfavourable outcome will almost surely occur.

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