most recent 30 from http://mathoverflow.net 2013-05-22T16:55:10Z http://mathoverflow.net/feeds/user/17928 http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/rdf http://mathoverflow.net/questions/2014/if-you-break-a-stick-at-two-points-chosen-uniformly-the-probability-the-three-re/75869#75869 liberalcynic 2011-09-19T16:24:56Z 2011-09-19T16:24:56Z

<p>My answer is 1/4. Consider a stick of length L. We make a cut at distance x from one end. Second cut at distance y from the same end. No side of a triangle can be greater than the sum of the other two sides, so both x and (y-x) have to be less than L/2. Probability is the number of favorable outcomes divided by total number of outcomes, so we get ((L/2) * (L/2))/(L*L) = 1/4!</p>