pith. sign in

arxiv: 1007.4870 · v3 · pith:3GPD5EZAnew · submitted 2010-07-28 · 🧮 math.CO · math.PR

(Very) short proof of Rayleigh's Theorem (and extensions)

classification 🧮 math.CO math.PR
keywords probabilitychosendirectionspointproofrandomrayleighsteps
0
0 comments X
read the original abstract

Consider a walk in the plane made of $n$ unit steps, with directions chosen independently and uniformly at random at each step. Rayleigh's theorem asserts that the probability for such a walk to end at a distance less than 1 from its starting point is $1/(n+1)$. We give an elementary proof of this result. We also prove the following generalization valid for any probability distribution $\mu$ on the positive real numbers: if two walkers start at the same point and make respectively $m$ and $n$ independent steps with uniformly random directions and with lengths chosen according to $\mu$, then the probability that the first walker ends farther than the second is $m/(m+n)$.

This paper has not been read by Pith yet.

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.