Grinstead-Snell-Probability · Problem 6.3.26

Sums of Random Variables

Mathematics · expected-value-geometric-probability

Problem

(from Hamming) Suppose you are standing on the bank of a straight river. (a) Choose, at random, a direction which will keep you on dry land, and walk 1 km in that direction. Let PP denote your position. What is the expected distance from PP to the river? (b) Now suppose you proceed as in part (a), but when you get to PP, you pick a random direction (from among all directions) and walk 1 km. What is the probability that you will reach the river before the second walk is completed?

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