The Toothpick Problem

March 2023

The Problem # Take a square piece of paper. Take a toothpick of a given length. At intervals equal to the length of the toothpick, draw lines on the piece of paper. Now, randomly toss a bunch of such toothpicks so that they fall over the paper. What fraction of the toothpicks will fall in a way so that they intersect one of the lines drawn? In other words, what is the probability of a single toothpick falling over a line? ...