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Probability II - Geometric Probability

Geometric probability involves calculating probabilities based on areas or lengths of regions, rather than counting objects. It is illustrated using examples of finding the probability a randomly chosen point falls in a particular region of a geometric shape. Key concepts are introduced, such as finding the probability a point is closer to one endpoint than another of a line segment. Practice problems apply these geometric probability concepts to situations involving circles, squares, triangles and other shapes.

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479 views4 pages

Probability II - Geometric Probability

Geometric probability involves calculating probabilities based on areas or lengths of regions, rather than counting objects. It is illustrated using examples of finding the probability a randomly chosen point falls in a particular region of a geometric shape. Key concepts are introduced, such as finding the probability a point is closer to one endpoint than another of a line segment. Practice problems apply these geometric probability concepts to situations involving circles, squares, triangles and other shapes.

Uploaded by

jeanliu701
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Probability II Geometric Probability

What is Geometric Probability?


In geometric probability problems, we count geometric quantities instead of other quantities blah, blah,
blah. Who cares? Instead, you will know what it is after a few problems.

Basic probability versus Geometric probability:

Basic Probability:
Example 1a Mr. Yims sock drawer has 7 different pairs of socks. One pair is super smelly, one pair is
horrendously skunk stinky, two pairs are heavily perfumed, and three pairs are super-brain boosting socks.
What is the probability that if Mr. Yim draws a random pair of socks, he draws a super-brain boosting pair?

Answer 1a

Geometric probability:
Example 2b Mr. Yims sock drawer is a total of 7 square feet. He has sooooo many socks of many different
kinds. To organize them, he splits his drawer by placing rectangle dividers to separate the region into smaller
ones. He allocates 1 square feet for super smelly socks, 1 square feet for horrendously skunk-stinky socks, 2
square feet for heavily perfumed socks, and 3 square feet for his super-brain boosting pair of socks. He
randomly places a claw like one in the claw-toy-grabbing machine into his drawer. What is the probability his
claw will land on super-brain boosting socks?

Answer 1b
Duh! Geometric probability is no different from regular probability! Its just now counting geometric values
instead of counting other, non-geometric values. In example 1a, we counted socks. In example 1b, we
counted square feet.

Concept:

Example 2:
In the drawing below, AC has length 5, and AB has length 4. A point P is randomly chosen on the total
segment. What is the probability that P lies on AB?

A B C
P
Example 3:
In the exact same drawing as above, P is once again randomly chosen (P may not be on segment AB as it is
drawn, since its location is randomly chosen). This time, what is the probability that P is closer to A than it is
to B?

Example 4 (This is tricky!!):


Your dinner table is a 5 foot by 5 foot square table. You are given a plate of juicy watermelon is placed onto
the table. Assume that the plate is perfectly circular, with radius of 1 foot. Call its center C. Now, assuming
you arent ignorant of basic laws of physics, you place the plate on the table such that the center C is ON the
table (or do you want to clean up a mess of broken plates and watermelon?). What is the probability that the
entire plate sits on the table (nothing sticking out)?

This circle center sits on


the table, AND it is NOT
sticking outside the
table.
SUCCESS

This circle center sits on


the table, but it is
sticking outside the table This circle center doesnt
edge. even sit on the table.
FAIL. TRY AGAIN
EPIC FAIL. GO BACK TO 1ST
GRADE.
Answer Key:

Answer 2:

Answer 3:
This is a little trickier. Now, we find the point, lets call it D, where D is as close to A as D is to B (in simpler
terms, D is the midpoint of segment AB).

A B C
D

Therefore, AD = 2, and BD = 2. We want P to be on AD, since then it will be closer to A than B.

Questions to ask (Pretty important, so dont skip this):


What happens if we pick point D as point P? Then is it closer to A than B? Uh-oh.
Should we exclude D then? But what is the length of D? Whats the definition of a point?
So should the inequality be less than, or should it be less-than-or-equal to?
Last question: DOES THIS EVEN MATTER???? Tricked you!
No really, think about it for a little what about D? Where does it count?

Answer 4:
Draw the region that the circle center can be. Notice that it can only be in the rectangle that is 1 feet from
each side.

Region: 3x3
SUCCESS!
Problems:

1. Let AB be a line segment of length 10. A point P is chosen at random on AB. What is the probability
that P is close to the midpoint of AM than to either endpoint?

2. Square ABCD has length 4. What is the probability that a randomly chosen point P inside the square is
closer to point A than to point C?

3. A real number x is chosen at random such that . What is the probability that ?
4. Mr. Yim has a 1000 square feet backyard. He has a trapezoidal swimming pool, with the longer base
being 50 feet and the other base being 10 feet. The height of the trapezoid is equal to the average of
the two bases. Now, a scheming and naughty David Zeng plans the nuke Mr. Yim by dropping a
nuclear bomb into poor Mr. Yims backyard, annihilating everything in a 1 mile radius. However,
Albert Gu rushes to save the day. He knows that nukes are much less effective if they impact on
water, so Albert tries to change its path. What is the probability that the nuke will not create a 1 mile
blast radius?

5. A real number x is selected randomly such that . What is the probability that ?
6. Alison and Bobby Fischer are playing a game of darts. The dartboard consists of 1 large circle or radius
5 and 1 smaller circle inside with the same center with radius 2. Hitting the smaller circle is worth
over 9000 points and hitting anywhere else on the dartboard is worth 3.141592 points. If Alison
throws a dart and gets Pi amount of points, then what is the probability that Bobby throws 1 dart and
beats Alison (assuming their throwing skills are completely random)?

7. Steves kitchen floor has a tile patter of square tiles of side length 10 cm. Steve drops a penny with
radius 1 cm on the floor. What is the probability that the penny lies entirely within one tile?

8. Suppose that 2 numbers x and y are each chosen such that and . What is the

probability that ?

9. Two points P and Q are randomly chosen on a circle C. What is the probability that the smaller arc
between P and Q measures less than 60 degrees?

10. Challenge: Triangle ABC is a 30-60-90 right triangle with right angle at C, angle ABC = 60 degrees, and
hypotenuse of length 2. Let P be a point chosen randomly inside ABC, and extend ray BP to hit side AC
at D. What is the probability that ? (Hint: Find the points where )

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