Problems of probability

Fernando Villena Delgado

Problem. The Buffon’s needle.

There are several parallel lines drawn on a sheet of paper separated by the same
distance each other. We have a needle with the same length as the distance between
the lines. If we drop the needle on the paper, calculate the probability of it touches any
line.

Solution.
The needle falls betwenn two lines, let say r and s. Let be r the nearest line to the
center of the needle, said O this point. Let be θ the angle formed by the needle with the
perpendicular from O to the line r, and y their distance. Say E the event of our interest,
it is defined by the expression:

E = {(θ, y) ∈ [0, π/2] × [0, 1]| cos θ ≥ y}

Figure 1: problema 1

1
In which one, θ is a random variable uniformly distributed in the interval [0, π/2] and y a
uniformly variable too, distributed in [0, 1]. The set E correspond to the region painted
in the following graphic on the θy − axis.

Figure 2: problema 1

The area of E is calculated as

π
Z π 2
2  π
cos θ dθ = sin θ = sin − sin 0 = 1
0  2
0

1 2
In conclussion, the probability searched is p = = 
π/2 π