Support for the
Java 2 runtime environment (version 1.4 or later). Click on the icon to download the appropriate
plug-in.Object Library > Applets > Buffon's Coin Experiment
The experiment consists of tossing a coin on a floor with square tiles, and is shown graphically in the first picture box. The center (X, Y) of the coin relative to the center of the square is recorded on each update in the first table, and is shown graphically as a red dot in the scatterplot. Variable I indicates the event that the coin crosses a crack, and is recorded on each update in the first table. The density of I is shown in blue in the distribution graph, and is recorded in the distribution table. On each update, the empirical density of I is shown in red in the distribution graph, and is recorded in the distribution table. The parameter of the process is the radius r of the coin, which can be varied with the scroll bar.
This experiment is historically important and illustrates a number of basic concepts in a conceptually simple setting: random experiment, event, random variable, and the simple version of the law of large numbers. For a more detailed mathematical analysis, see
Click on the link below to download the Java archive file:
To add the applet to your web page, insert the following in the html file, at the point where you want the applet to appear.
<applet code="edu.uah.math.experiments.BuffonCoinExperiment.class"
archive="BuffonCoinExperiment.jar" width="500" height="325"></applet>
The jar file and the html file must be in the same folder.
This width and height dimensions are simply suggestions and can be varied. Generally, components such as graphs and tables expand and contract proportionally, while components such as buttons, scrollbars, dice, and coins are fixed in size.
Support for the
Java 2 runtime environment (version 1.4 or later). Click on the icon to download the appropriate
plug-in.Copyright © 2001-2003 Kyle Siegrist, Dawn Duehring
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
If you are interested in the Java source code or the Java documentation and object model for this applet, please visit BuffonCoinExperiment in the Object section of the Library.