Random points associated with rectangles (Q1284657)

This paper contains a large number of explicit formulae for the general moments \(E(x^h)\) \((h=1,2,\dots)\) and densities \(f(x)\) of the distance \(x\) between two random points \(P(x_{11},x_{12})\) and \(Q(x_{21},x_{22})\) associated with one or two rectangles in various situations by using elementary methods and without using results from integral geometry. The organization of the paper is as follows. In the first section the authors consider the cases: 1. both the points within the rectangle \(R\) with sides of lengths \(a\) and \(b\), respectively, \(a\leq b\) (the origin at one corner and the \(x\)-axis and \(y\)-axis along two sides); 2. two points on opposite sides of a square; 3. one point on the \(y\)-axis or the side parallel to it and one point inside the rectangle \(R\); 4. one point on the \(x\)-axis or the side parallel to it and one point inside a rectangle \(R\); 5. one point on the \(y\)-axis and one on the side parallel to it; 6. one point on the \(x\)-axis and one on the side parallel to it; 7. one point on the \(y\)-axis and one point on the \(x\)-axis; 8. one point is fixed at one of the corners of the rectangle \(R\) and the other is a random point within the rectangle \(R\). In the second section two coplanar and similarly oriented rectangles \(R_I\) and \(R_2\) are considered, one with sides \(a\) and \(b\) and the other with sides \(c\) and \(d\) \((a\|c\) and \(b\|d)\). Let \(P\) and \(Q\) be random points in these two rectangles \(R_1\) and \(R_2\), respectively, randomness in the sense of probability being proportional to the areas of the respective rectangles. Several possible cases are described: 1. both the points \(P\) and \(Q\) within the rectangles \(R_1\) and \(R_2\), respectively; 2. two random points on parallel line segments; 3. two identical rectangles side by side. In Section 3 the authors concentrate on the generalized distance measure \[ L_r= \bigl\{|x_{21}- x_{11}|^r +|x_{22}- x_{12}|^r\bigr\}^{1/r} \quad (r\geq 1) \] between \(P\) and \(Q\). The density and moments of \(L_r\) for some of the situations discussed in Sections 1 and 2 are investigated. These explicit formulae will be helpful to those who work in various applied areas for the computations required in their problems.