Random walk

From SklogWiki
Revision as of 19:20, 25 February 2008 by Nice and Tidy (talk | contribs) (New page: {{stub-general}} Apparently, the so-called '''random walk''' problem was set out by Karl Pearson in a letter to Nature in 1905 (Ref. 1) <blockquote> "A man starts from a point O and walks ...)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This article is a 'stub' page, it has no, or next to no, content. It is here at the moment to help form part of the structure of SklogWiki. If you add sufficient material to this article then please remove the {{Stub-general}} template from this page.

Apparently, the so-called random walk problem was set out by Karl Pearson in a letter to Nature in 1905 (Ref. 1)

"A man starts from a point O and walks l yards in a straight line; he then turns through any angle whatever and walks another l yards in a second straight line. He repeats this process n times. I require the probability that after these n stretches he is at a distance between r and r + dr from his starting point, O."

References

  1. Karl Pearson "The Problem of the Random Walk", Nature 72 p. 294 (1905)
  2. Ian Stewart "Mathematics: Where drunkards hang out", Nature 413 pp. 686-687 (2001)