Wednesday, 7 August 2013

Buffon's Needle and solving crimes


 There is a professor of mathematics working for FBI as a crime analyst in the NUMB3RS show. In an episode he uses a math theory to narrow a number of relevant court cases to only two. 
Next, the mathematician restricts his focus on only one case and states that Pi points to that case. Could Pi, the ratio of a circle's circumference and its diameter, help the crime investigation? 

Yes. Pi is also important in the field of probability. 

Buffon's Needle is one of the oldest problems in the field of geometrical probability. It was first stated in 1777. It involves dropping a needle on a lined sheet of paper and determining the probability of the needle crossing one of the lines on the page. The remarkable result is that the probability is directly related to the value of pi.

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