Random chords and point distances in regular polygons

Uwe Bäsel

Published 2012-04-12, updated 2012-09-05Version 2

In this paper we obtain the chord length distribution function for any regular polygon. From this function we conclude the density function and the distribution function of the distance between two uniformly and independently distributed random points in the regular polygon. The method to calculate the chord length distribution function is quite different from those of Harutyunyan and Ohanyan, uses only elementary methods and provides the result with only a few natural case distinctions.