David Robbins - Trinity College
Buffon's Needle and Buffon's Noodle
Exercise: Throw a needle of length 1 unit onto a plane ruled with parallel lines 2 units apart. What is the probability that the needle will cross a line? (Clearly, it can't cross more than one!) This is the classical Buffon needle problem. What can we say if the needle is replaced by a piece of cooked spaghetti? We will discuss these and some related questions in geometrical probability.
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