A stick of fixed length is broken into 3 pieces. Construct triangle

geometric-probabilityprobabilityproblem solving

A stick of length 1 is broken into 3 pieces in the following way:

  1. We chose random interior point on the stick and break it into two pieces
  2. After that we choose the longest of the two pieces, choose random point on it and break it again, getting 3 pieces total.
  3. The task is to find probability that it would be possible to construct a triangle using that pieces.

I've came up with the following idea:

Let $X_1, X_2$ be random variable, uniformly distributed across all points on the stick ($X_1, X_2\in [0,1]$). It is clear, that Probability space may be illustrated as follows (marked with yellow):
Pic 1

And basing on triangle inequality we may highlight areas on the graph, that would suit us in terms of constructing triangle:

enter image description here

So, we get that $|\Omega|=S_{yellow section}=\cfrac{3}{4}$
And probability we are searching for: $Pr(A)=\cfrac{S_{blue section}}{S_{yellow section}}=\cfrac{1}{3}$. So answer here is $\cfrac{1}{3}$, however my mate got very different result, including $log$. Can you help me with this task/find mistake in my solution?

Any response is welcome and would be appreciated a lot.

Best Answer

Your solution does not fulfill the random protocol described in the problem. The second break is not at a random point in $[0,1]$, but at a random point in the longer piece of the first break.

Choose the first breaking point at $x\in\,\bigl]{1\over2},1\bigr]$ and the second at $xy$ with $y\in\,\bigl]{1\over2},1\bigr]$. The variable $(x,y)$ is then uniformly distributed in the square $Q:=\bigl]{1\over2},1\bigr]^2$ of area ${1\over4}$. In this way we obtain three pieces of length $$\ell_1=xy,\quad \ell_2=x-xy=x(1-y),\quad \ell_3=1-x\ .$$ The $\ell_i$ can be the sides of a triangle iff all of them are $<{1\over2}$. For $\ell_2$ and $\ell_3$ this is automatically the case, and we are left with the condition $\ell_1=xy<{1\over2}$. Let $S$ be the corresponding part of $Q$. The required probability then is $$p={{\rm area}(S)\over{\rm area}(Q)}=4\int_{1/2}^1\left({1\over2x}-{1\over2}\right)dx=\ldots=2\log2-1\approx0.3863\ .$$

enter image description here