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Problem of the Week 1007

Play With Your Food

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You are served a plate containing 100 spaghetti noodles. You randomly grab two ends from the pile and tie them together. Then you repeat this process until there are no ends left. What is the expected number of loops at the end?

Source: John Guilford, Agilent

© Copyright 2004 Stan Wagon. Reproduced with permission.

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9 April 2004