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Shortest of three random pieces under five centimetres

Question

A one-metre log is cut at two points chosen independently and uniformly along its length, producing three pieces. What is the probability that the smallest piece is 55 cm or shorter?

Short answer

111/400111/400. All three pieces exceed length aa with probability (1−3a)2(1-3a)^2 (the region where every piece exceeds aa is a scaled copy of the full simplex). With a=0.05a=0.05 this is 0.852=0.72250.85^2=0.7225, so the answer is 1−0.7225=1114001-0.7225=\tfrac{111}{400}.

Adapted from QuantQuestions.io; question and answer rewritten by SelfMadeQuant.com.

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