Three ants are arranged on vertices of a triangle, one ant to a vertex. At some moment, all the ants begin crawiling along the sides of the triangel. Each one crawls along one of the two sides that connect to the vertex it is sitting on, with an equal probability of picking either.

Assuming that all the ants move with an equal speed, and that they keep crawling forever in the same direction along the triangle, what are the odds that no two will collide?

Though I am not good at picking odds- is the answer 1 out of 8.
Since each ant has 1/2 chance of choosing any one side, the next ant would have 1/2*1/2 chance of choosing that side which does not lead it to a direct collision course and so on....

Posted by maverick on 2002-11-20 22:19:28