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Questions tagged [geometric-probability]

Probabilities of random geometric objects having certain properties (enclosing the origin, having an acute angle,...); expected counts, areas, ... of random geometric objects. For questions about the geometric distribution, use (probability-distributions) instead.

48 votes
6 answers
51k views

Probability that n points on a circle are in one semicircle

Choose n points randomly from a circle, how to calculate the probability that all the points are in one semicircle? Any hint is appreciated.
NECing's user avatar
  • 4,105
30 votes
10 answers
67k views

What is the probability that the center of the circle is contained within a triangle formed by choosing three random points on the circumference?

Consider the triangle formed by randomly distributing three points on a circle. What is the probability of the center of the circle be contained within the triangle?
Paul's user avatar
  • 2,473
44 votes
4 answers
4k views

Rain droplets falling on a table

Suppose you have a circular table of radius $R$. This table has been left outside, and it begins to rain at a constant rate of one droplet per second. The drops, which can be considered points as they ...
Nicolás Kim's user avatar
24 votes
2 answers
8k views

Probability that the convex hull of random points contains sphere's center

What is the probability that the convex hull of $n+2$ random points on $n$-dimensional sphere contains sphere's center?
Grigory M's user avatar
  • 17.6k
37 votes
6 answers
2k views

If $(a,b,c)$ are the sides of a triangle, what is the probability that $ac>b^2$?

Let $a \le b \le c$ be the sides of a triangle inscribed inside a fixed circle such that the vertices of the triangle are distributed uniformly on the circumference. Question 1: Is it true that the ...
Nilotpal Sinha's user avatar
43 votes
3 answers
4k views

A disc contains $n$ random points. Each point is connected to its nearest neighbor. What does the average cluster size approach as $n\to\infty$?

A disc contains $n$ independent uniformly random points. Each point is connected by a line segment to its nearest neighbor, forming clusters of connected points. For example, here are $20$ random ...
Dan's user avatar
  • 25.7k
9 votes
2 answers
2k views

Centre in N-sided polygon on circle [closed]

What's the probability that a n-sided polygon made from n distinct random points on circle contain the centre?
Oliver Blue's user avatar
23 votes
1 answer
819 views

Probability of random sphere lying inside the unit ball

Let $n\geq2$. Let $B\subseteq\mathbb{R}^n$ be the unit ball. Randomly choose $n+1$ points of $B$ (uniformly and independently). Then (almost surely) there will be a unique hypersphere $S$ passing ...
Thomas Browning's user avatar
16 votes
2 answers
829 views

The vertices of a triangle are three random points on a unit circle. The side lengths are $a,b,c$. Show that $P(ab>c)=\frac12$.

The vertices of a triangle are three uniformly random points on a unit circle. The side lengths are, in random order, $a,b,c$. Show that $P(ab>c)=\frac12$. The result is strongly suggested by ...
Dan's user avatar
  • 25.7k
10 votes
2 answers
670 views

A surprising dilogarithm integral identity arising from a generalised point enclosure problem

This question asked: What is the probability that three points selected uniformly randomly on the unit circle contain a fixed point at distance $x$ from the circle's centre? I answered that ...
Parcly Taxel's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
6k views

Probability that polygon formed by n points on a circle contain the center of the circle?

I have seen similar questions being asked on this forum, but couldn't find this exact problem. So there are n points selected uniformly randomly on a circle. What is the probability that the polygon ...
qwerty_uiop's user avatar
132 votes
4 answers
23k views

What is the probability that a point chosen randomly from inside an equilateral triangle is closer to the center than to any of the edges?

My friend gave me this puzzle: What is the probability that a point chosen at random from the interior of an equilateral triangle is closer to the center than any of its edges? I tried to draw ...
terrace's user avatar
  • 2,017
25 votes
2 answers
611 views

A square contains many random points. From each point, a disc grows until it hits another disc. What proportion of the square is covered by the discs?

A square lamina contains $n$ independent uniformly random points. At a given time, each point becomes the centre of a disc whose radius grows from $0$, at say $1$ cm per second, and stops growing when ...
Dan's user avatar
  • 25.7k
14 votes
4 answers
535 views

Break a stick at two random points. The probability that the longest piece is at least twice as long as each of the other pieces is $1/2$. Why?

Choose two independent uniformly random points on a stick, and break the stick at that those points. The probability that the longest piece is at least twice as long as each of the other pieces is $1/...
Dan's user avatar
  • 25.7k
9 votes
1 answer
861 views

How is the number of points in the convex hull of five random points distributed?

This is about another result that follows from the results on Sylvester's four-point problem and its generalizations; it's perhaps slightly less obvious than the other one I posted. Given a ...
joriki's user avatar
  • 239k

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