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Notes on random chords in convex bodies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2016

E. G. Enns
Affiliation:
University of Calgary
P. F. Ehlers*
Affiliation:
University of Calgary
*
Postal address for both authors: Department of Mathematics, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive N.W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4.

Abstract

Consider a compact body E embedded in a convex compact body G. A point P is randomly chosen in E and three different rays to the boundary ∂G of G are generated by P. Ray is in a uniformly random direction and has length R, ray is through a second random point chosen from within G and has length W, and ray is to a random point in ∂G and has length Y. The distribution of Y is obtained and is related to previous work. When E is specialized to G or to ∂G, other known results are retrieved. The paper ends with a discussion of a conjecture relating the means of R, W and Y.

Type
Research Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Applied Probability Trust 1993 

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Footnotes

The authors acknowledge the support of the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Part of this work was completed at the Australian National University.

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