Undergraduate Mathematics Students

Buffon's noodle and the Monte Carlo Method (and pizza!)

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Buffon's noodle and the Monte Carlo Method
Drew Armstrong (University of Minnesota)
Thursday, November 6, 2008
3:00--3:50 p.m.
Harrelson 330

Suppose you have a shape cut out of cardboard and you want to know its perimeter---but you don't have any measuring equipment. There is an amazing way to measure the perimeter simply by throwing your shape on a hardwood floor. Here's how it works: suppose your shape has perimeter L and the cracks in the floor are distance D apart. Now throw your shape on the floor. Under "optimal conditions," the probability that your shape will touch a crack is exactly L/(pi D). It's true!

The idea of doing a random experiment to perform a scientific computation is called the Monte Carlo method. Mr. Buffon accidentally invented this method in the 18th century by throwing things on the floor.

The talk will be accessible to everyone --- including you.

Pizza provided as always!

Noodles will not be provided.

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Check out the SUM Series website for more information on the SUM Series.

Upcoming topics include:

Ranking sports teams with Google's PageRank.
Math movie nite (afternoon)

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TELL YOUR FRIENDS!

Posted at 03:10PM Oct 31, 2008 by nreadin in General  |  Comments[0]