Suppose you had five sticks of length 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 inches. If you chose three at random, what is the likelihood tht the three sticks could be put together, tip to tip, so as to form a triangle?

Now suppose you had twenty sticks, of lengths 1 through 20 inches. If you picked three at random, what is the likelihood that the three could be put together, tip to tip, to form a right triangle?

(Assume that a triangle has to have some area)

Well, in the first case the only way you could form a triangle would be to pick the 2, 3 and 4 inch sticks. The probability of this is
(3/5) * (2/4) * (1/3) = 0.1

The next part... well let me think about it for a couple minutes.

Posted by Sam on 2003-11-05 14:40:43