You must randomly place a destroyer (a 1x2 sized ship) on a 5x5 grid such that if I searched in any single square, my probability of finding the destroyer there is exactly 2/25. Is such a probability distribution possible? You cannot simply choose randomly one of the 40 possible positions of a destroyer because corners would have a 1/20 chance to contain the destroyer, while the center would have 1/10 chance.

Generalize to a 1xN sized ship in a MxM grid. When is it possible to place the ship with an even probability distribution in each square?

The probablity distribution is even when N equals M or 1.

Posted by Eric on 2006-02-15 15:29:16