Random probability on a dartboard

probabilityprobability theory

What began as a simple question at first glance slowly grew more interesting than I initially thought.

The problem goes as such:
Franky and Sal fashioned a dart board to play darts after school. It just so happened that no two sectors were of the same size, leading to all sectors having different odds of getting hit with the dart. Franky threw a dart and hit one of the sectors. What is more probable, Sal hitting the same sector on his throw, or his hitting the adjacent sector, moving clockwise around the center of the board?

That's it—nothing is said about the sector Franky hit or the others. Maybe this is a lack of sight on my part, or maybe this funny dartboard inquiry has rightfully trumped me. Of course, this is a question with only two answers. Let's just keep it to one attempt, though—no guessing.

What's the proof and subsequent answer for this problem?

Best Answer

Consider a dartboard with $n$ sectors and respective sector probabilities $p_0, \dots, p_{n-1}$.

The probability of hitting sector $i$ twice in a row is $p_i^2$, and the combined probability of hitting the same sector twice in a row is $q := \sum_{i=0}^{n-1} p_i^2$.

Let $[i+1]_n$ denote $(i+1)$ modulo $n$. The probability of hitting sector $i$ and then sector $[i+1]_n$ is $p_i p_{[i+1]_n}$. The total probability of such an event occurring is $$r := \sum_{i=1}^n p_i p_{[i+1]_n} \le \left( \sum_{i=1}^n p_i^2 \sum_{i=1}^n p_{[i+1]_n}^2 \right)^{1/2} = \sum_{i=1}^n p_i^2 = q,$$ where we used the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality. The inequality holds with equality if and only if $p_i p_{[i+1]_n} = p_i^2$ for all $i$ which is equivalent to requiring that $p_i$ is the same for all $i$.

So it is more likely to hit the same sector twice than to hit the two different sectors as specified in the question.

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