Romeo, Juliet and Cofee Meet

Romeo and Juliet plan to meet over coffee between 3 PM and 4 PM. Not known for punctuality, either is willing to wait 15 minutes for the other to show up. What is the probability they will have coffee together?

We will do a graphical solution followed by simulations.

The required probability is the chance of two people meeting inside the shaded area of the circle. It is estimated as 1 – chance of both not making it inside the region = 1 – (3/4)x(3/4) = (16-9)/16 = 7/16 = 0.437.

R Simulations

itr <- 1000000
time_band <- 15

  romeo <- runif(itr, 0, 60)
  juliet <- runif(itr, 0, 60)  
  mean(abs(romeo - juliet) <= time_band)
0.437