Meeting when arrivals are uniform on different windows
Question
A student will turn up at a time chosen uniformly between 4:00 and 5:00 PM. Independently, Gabe will turn up at a time chosen uniformly between half past four and five. Whoever arrives first waits at most minutes for the other and then leaves. What is the probability that they meet?
Short answer
. In minutes after 4:00, Gabe is and the student ; they meet if the times differ by at most . For Gabe's time the student's window has length , and for it shrinks to , so the favourable area is out of .
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Open the worked solutionLessons behind this question
- Continuous Random Variables and Probability Density Functions
- Cumulative Distribution Functions
- Sample Spaces, Events, and the Probability Axioms
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