# Homework Help: Approximating ∏ With a Coin!

1. Jul 15, 2010

1. The problem statement, all variables and given/known data

2. Relevant equations

3. The attempt at a solution

I found this interesting problem in my textbook. I have heard of Buffon's needle experiment which estimates pi through probability. This problem came from a pre-calc book out of the probability section. The problem seams similar to Buffon's needle in that d is the diameter of the coin as well as the distance in between each square. However, this is a coin and a grid, not parallel lines and a needle. I'm not sure whether the question is asking for an analytical solution to b or an actual experiment. Can it be determined analytically?

The probability for hitting a vertex would be the same for any d value chosen. I believe it would be much more likely to hit a vertex than to land exactly in between two parallel lines. Does finding the probability involve the area taken up if a coin were placed in each square grid, and the free space left?

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2. Jul 16, 2010

### vela

Staff Emeritus
It's asking you to do an experiment, but you also need the analytical solution to know how to get the estimate for pi.
Think about where the center of the coin can land so that the coin will cover a corner.

3. Jul 16, 2010

### Office_Shredder

Staff Emeritus
It doesn't need to land exactly in between two parallel lines

As an example I made a picture

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/7943/circleinsquare.png [Broken]

As for how to go about solving the probability exactly, vela has good advice

Last edited by a moderator: May 4, 2017
4. Jul 16, 2010

Would this be true?: If you were to inscribe a circle of d diameter inside a square with sides length d, the center of a coin with diameter d tracing the circumference the circle would touch a corner at every position on the circle except when the coin is situated at angles 0,90,180,360 on the d diameter circle.

5. Jul 16, 2010

### vela

Staff Emeritus
If I understand what you're saying, the answer is yes. In the four cases you mentioned, the coin would intersect with two corners simultaneously.

6. Jul 16, 2010

### DaveC426913

It does not matter if the circle lands on a gridline. What matters is when the circle lands on TWO gridlines simultaneously. (i.e. it will be covering a vertex where two lines intersect).

That is the crux of the experiment.

7. Jul 16, 2010

When you say a corner do you mean an intersection of only 2 lines or an intersection of 2 or more lines?

8. Jul 16, 2010

### Office_Shredder

Staff Emeritus
Where do more than 2 lines intersect on a grid?

9. Jul 16, 2010

O I see. I was considering each side of the square to be a line, but your considering the movement across the grid in the x and y directions as a whole to be lines.

Ok, so I thought I'd make some pictures to illustrate my thinking.

You can have intersection like this...

You can move that circle anywhere on the x-axis and it will cover 2 intersecting lines. You can also have the same thing but on the y-axis and moving that up and down anywhere will cover 2 intersecting lines with every possible placement along that axis.

Then you can move the circle just a little bit in the x any y directions and it wont cover 2 intersecting lines

Then you can move the circle diagonally and it will intersect.

Am I making this more complicated than it is? Because is seams like there is a whole lot of possibilities for when it is touching and when it isn't.

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10. Jul 16, 2010

### vela

Staff Emeritus
Concentrate on the middle intersection in your pictures. Where does the center of the circle have to be in relation to it for it to lie within the circle?

11. Jul 16, 2010

well if you drew a circle of d diameter around the center intersection

and had another circle of d diameter trace around the circle with it's center point, it would always touch the center point on the intersection no matter where along the circle it is.

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12. Jul 16, 2010

### Office_Shredder

Staff Emeritus
That's good. Now, given a square, where can the center be in that square so that the circle hits one of the corners of the square?

13. Jul 16, 2010

It would look like this.

The center of the circle would be able to travel along thoes lines and hit an intersection. Infact the only place it wont hit an intersection is in the center area in the square. If the center of the circle is in that center area it wont touch an intersection. Would you need to find the area of the center area verses the area of the outside parts and set up a ratio.

Well you can calculate the inside area to be $$d^2-\frac{(\frac{1}{2}d)^{2}\pi}{4}$$

so would the ratio of hits covering a vertex to hits not covering a vertex be $$\frac{(\frac{1}{2}d)^2\pi}{d^2-\frac{(\frac{1}{2}d)^{2}\pi}{4}}$$ for the probability of where it would land

Man... you need ∏ to calculate the probability for an experiment designed to approximate ∏?

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14. Jul 16, 2010

### Gregg

For any square that the centre of the coin lands in randomly, it must be within distance d or less with any of the four surrounding vertices. The area is therefore $d^2 \frac{\pi }{4}.$ The total area of a square is $d^2$

There is a $\frac{\pi}{4}$ chance that it will cover a vertex. Do the experiment 100 times and you'll most likely get $\approx \frac{\pi}{4}$

Last edited: Jul 16, 2010
15. Jul 16, 2010

### Office_Shredder

Staff Emeritus
The probability of it landing on a vertex will be the area where it will land on the vertex divided by the area of the whole square. What you have isn't quite right.

Once you know the probability of it landing on a vertex, drop a coin 100 times. If it lands on a vertex 75% of the time, you can set your expression for the probability to be equal to .75. Since you know d also, the only thing left to do is solve for pi

16. Jul 16, 2010

### vela

Staff Emeritus
Almost. Your second term is the area of only one of the quarter circles.

Of course. Pi has to appear in the result otherwise you can't solve for it.

17. Jul 16, 2010

oops. What I meant to say was.

$$d^2-(\frac{1}{2}d)^{2}\pi$$

So the ratio would be

$$\frac{(\frac{1}{2}d)^2\pi}{d^2-(\frac{1}{2}d)^{2}\pi}$$

So If we say that d=1 we would have

$$\frac{\frac{\pi}{4}}{1-\frac{\pi}{4}}$$

18. Jul 16, 2010

### vela

Staff Emeritus
That would work out to be about 3.66, which obviously can't be a probability.

19. Jul 16, 2010

### Gregg

I'm not sure how you got $$d^{2}\frac{\pi}{4}$$ from just knowing that "For any square that the centre of the coin lands in randomly, it must be within distance d or less with any of the four surrounding vertices."