Bunuel wrote:
A 5 meter long wire is cut into two pieces. If the longer piece is then used to form a perimeter of a square, what is the probability that the area of the square will be more than 1 if the original wire was cut at an arbitrary point?
A. \(\frac{1}{6}\)
B. \(\frac{1}{5}\)
C. \(\frac{3}{10}\)
D. \(\frac{1}{3}\)
E. \(\frac{2}{5}\)
Hi Bunuel,
Could you please help with why my approach is incorrect?
I assumed one side to be x and the other to be 5-x. (x is assumed to be the longer side)
The side of the square is therefore x/4 and area is \( x2\)/16.
For area to be >1, \( x2\)/16 should be greater than 1 or |x|>4.
Since 5-x>0, x<5. Therefore, favorable values of x are between 4 and 5. The whole rope is 5 units. Therefore ans = 1/5
Also the wire is uniform, so why do we need to consider where the wire was cut? I understand the logic to the answer provided by you but why am I not getting it mathematically?