Buffon's Needle Problem for the Taxicab Geometry: or Why $\pi = 4$
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We revisit the famous Buffon's needle problem, one of the first problems in geometric probability. Only now, the plane upon which we toss our needles is not Euclidean, as it was for Buffon, but instead has the simple but fascinating taxicab geometry. We find that we get the exact same solution as Buffon did, except that now $\pi = 4$! As a bonus, we get nice introductions to basic probability theory and geometry.
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