Pick-up Sticks and the General Fibonacci Numbers
Probability
2026-04-21 v1
Abstract
In the article by Edward et al. \cite{Sudbury2025}, it was shown that the probability that no three sticks randomly chosen from the unit interval can form a triangle equals the reciprocal of the product of the first Fibonacci numbers. The authors further suggested a generalization to higher -gons . This note proves that, indeed, for any , the probability that no of independent uniform lengths can form a -gon is expressed as a product whose factors involve a -step Fibonacci-type recurrence. The method follows closely the original argument of \cite{Sudbury2025}, while making ex
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2604.18073,
title = {Pick-up Sticks and the General Fibonacci Numbers},
author = {Tian Caolin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.18073},
year = {2026}
}