If I throw 1000 10-centimeter-long needles on to a tiled floor, where each tile is a 10 cm x 30 cm rectangle, approximately how many needles will end up lying across a crack?

You may assume that the widths of both the needles and the cracks are negligible.

(In reply to Simulation supports "second thoughts" by Charlie)

Also Mathworld supporst this solution at  http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Buffon-LaplaceNeedleProblem.html Buffon Laplace needle problem

Edited on January 21, 2005, 3:21 pm

Posted by Hugo on 2005-01-21 15:20:36