Abstract
A French nobleman, Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707–1788), posed the following problem in 1777:
Suppose that you drop a short needle on ruled paper — what is then the probability that the needle comes to lie in a position where it crosses one of the lines?
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References
E. Barbier: Note sur le problème de l’aiguille et le jeu du joint couvert, J Mathématiques Pures et Appliquées (2) 5 (1860), 273–286.
L. Berggren, J. Borwein & P. Borwein, eds.: Pi: A Source Book Springer-Verlag, New York 1997.
G. L. Leclerc, Comte de Buffon: Essai d’arithmétique morale, Ap pendix to “Histoire naturelle générale et particulière,” Vol. 4, 1777.
D. A. Klain & G.-C. Rota: Introduction to Geometric Probability, “Lezion Lincee,” Cambridge University Press 1997.
T. H. O’Beirne: Puzzles and Paradoxes, Oxford University Press, London 1965.
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© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Aigner, M., Ziegler, G.M. (2001). Buffon’s needle problem. In: Proofs from THE BOOK. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-04315-8_20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-04315-8_20
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-662-04317-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-04315-8
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