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Two random arcs on a circle not overlapping

Question

On the unit circle, colour red the counterclockwise arc from (1,0)(1,0) of angle θ1\theta_1, where θ1∼Unif(0,2π)\theta_1\sim\text{Unif}(0,2\pi). Independently draw α,θ2∼Unif(0,2π)\alpha,\theta_2\sim\text{Unif}(0,2\pi), and colour blue the counterclockwise arc of angle θ2\theta_2 that begins at the point at angle α\alpha. What is the probability that the red and blue arcs do not intersect?

Short answer

1/61/6. Measure angles as fractions of a full turn so all three variables are Unif(0,1)\text{Unif}(0,1). The arcs are disjoint iff blue starts after red ends (θ1<α\theta_1<\alpha) and does not wrap back to 00 (θ2<1−α\theta_2<1-\alpha). Conditioning on α\alpha, the probability is ∫01α(1−α) dα=16\int_0^1\alpha(1-\alpha)\,d\alpha=\tfrac16.

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