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BUFFON'S NEEDLE EXPERIMENT

BUFFON

Georges Louis Leclerc Comte de Buffon (07.09.1707.-16.04.1788.)

Buffon's original form was to drop a needle of length L at random on grid of parallel lines of spacing D.

Needle

For L les than or equal D we obtain

P(needle intersects the grid) = 2 • L / PI D.

If we drop the needle N times and count R intersections we obtain

P = R / N,
PI = 2
L N / R D.

 

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