perplexus.info :: Probability : The decisive straw

The decisive straw (Posted on 2014-07-25)

One by one straws are placed on a mathematical camel’s back.
The straws have random weight, being drawn independently from the uniform distribution 0 to 1.
The camel’s back breaks when the total weight of the straws exceeds 1.

What’s the expected weight of the straw that breaks the camel’s back?

Source: abridged from "Mind your decisions" blog.

No Solution Yet Submitted by Ady TZIDON

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computer exploration--heuristic approximation

| Comment 1 of 6

For trial = 1 To 10000

tot = 0

straw = Rnd(1)

tot = tot + straw

Loop Until tot > 1

overtot = overtot + straw

If trial Mod 100 = 0 Then

Text1.Text = Text1.Text & overtot / trial & crlf

DoEvents

End If

Next trial

finds the answer is about 0.64

Posted by Charlie on 2014-07-25 14:06:27

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