Puzzles/Statistical puzzles/Buffon's needle

Puzzles | Statistical puzzles | Buffon's needle


This is a classic puzzle attributed to Buffon. Here it is:

Assume you stand on a floor with a pattern of parallel lines on it which are spaced at unit distance. Now you throw a needle of length D with D < 1. What is the probability that the needle intersects one of the lines?

This puzzle assumes ideal lines and needle of extend zero.

The solution is given in Wikipedia.