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Ducks in a pond (Posted on 2023-01-24) Difficulty: 3 of 5
3 ducks have landed in a circular pond. What is the probability there is a diameter such that the semicircle on one side contains all of them?

Repeat for 4 ducks.

Note: consider the ducks to be randomly chosen points in a circle.

No Solution Yet Submitted by Jer    
Rating: 5.0000 (2 votes)

Comments: ( Back to comment list | You must be logged in to post comments.)
3 ducks as a simulation | Comment 7 of 17 |
100 million trials seem to verify 3/4 that Steven found.

ct=0; hit=0;

a=0;
for trial=1:100000000
  b=360*rand; c=360*rand;  
        ct=ct+1;
        set=sort([a b c]);
        aa=set(1);bb=set(2);cc=set(3); 
        diff=[bb-aa cc-bb    aa-cc+360];
        if max(diff)>180
          hit=hit+1;
        end
      
end
disp([hit ct hit/ct])               

finds

          hits               trials            fraction
      74996141           100000000          0.74996141

verifying 3/4

  Posted by Charlie on 2023-01-24 11:36:21
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