On the distribution of the number of walks until no shoes
This article presents a further analysis of the probabilistic problem known as The Number of Walks Until No Shoes, introduced by Blom et al. (1994). We show that, in the cases of one and two pairs of shoes, the distribution of the number of walks is given by a geometric random variable and by the sum of two independent geometric random variables, respectively. These results are intended for use as teaching material in early undergraduate courses to aid in the understanding of probability distributions.
Authors
- Toshio Nakata
Institutions
- University of Teacher Education Fukuoka (JP)
Publication Details
- Journal
- The Mathematical Gazette
- Published
- 2026-06-30
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1080/00255572.2026.2674982
- Primary Topic
- Statistics Education and Methodologies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science