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Random Ants

CalcMedium~20 min· Probability
Problem

The Problem

Three ants are placed at the three vertices of an equilateral triangle. Each ant picks a direction (clockwise or counterclockwise) uniformly at random and starts walking along the perimeter at unit speed.

  1. What is the probability that no ants collide?
  2. Generalize: ants on a regular -gon, each picking a direction uniformly at random. What is ?
  3. If the ants walk at different speeds (each ant's speed chosen uniformly from {1, 2, \ldots, k\}), how does the answer change?