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Pythagorean odds

Problem 285

Published on 03 April 2010 at 05:00 am [Server Time]

Albert chooses a positive integer k, then two real numbers a, b are randomly chosen in the interval [0,1] with uniform distribution.
The square root of the sum (k·a+1)2 + (k·b+1)2 is then computed and rounded to the nearest integer. If the result is equal to k, he scores k points; otherwise he scores nothing.

For example, if k = 6, a = 0.2 and b = 0.85, then (k·a+1)2 + (k·b+1)2 = 42.05.
The square root of 42.05 is 6.484... and when rounded to the nearest integer, it becomes 6.
This is equal to k, so he scores 6 points.

It can be shown that if he plays 10 turns with k = 1, k = 2, ..., k = 10, the expected value of his total score, rounded to five decimal places, is 10.20914.

If he plays 105 turns with k = 1, k = 2, k = 3, ..., k = 105, what is the expected value of his total score, rounded to five decimal places?


Answer:
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