English

Estimates from below of the Buffon noodle probability for undercooked noodles

Analysis of PDEs 2008-11-11 v1 Complex Variables

Abstract

Let \Cantn\Cant_n be the nn-th generation in the construction of the middle-half Cantor set. The Cartesian square \Kn\K_n of \Cantn\Cant_n consists of 4n4^n squares of side-length 4n4^{-n}. The chance that a long needle thrown at random in the unit square will meet \Kn\K_n is essentially the average length of the projections of \Kn\K_n, also known as the Favard length of \Kn\K_n. A result due to Bateman and Volberg \cite{BV} shows that a lower estimate for this Favard length is clognnc \frac{\log n}{n}. We may bend the needle at each stage, giving us what we will call a noodle, and ask whether the uniform lower estimate clognnc \frac{\log n}{n} still holds for these so-called Buffon noodle probabilities. If so, we call the sequence of noodles undercooked. We will define a few classes of noodles and prove that they are undercooked. In particular, we are interested in the case when the noodles are circular arcs of radius rnr_n. We will show that if rn4n5r_n \geq 4^{\frac{n}{5}}, then the circular arcs are undercooked noodles.

Cite

@article{arxiv.0811.1302,
  title  = {Estimates from below of the Buffon noodle probability for undercooked noodles},
  author = {Matthew Bond and Alexander Volberg},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0811.1302},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

10 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-21T11:39:35.485Z