Imagine that you have
to measure the surface area of the lake by using only a cannon! Let us
assume that the geometric shape of the lake is too complex to be dealt
with using simple formulas and that you have almost infinite supply of
cannon balls. In such case you just have to hope that you are perfectly
random shooter! Why so?
If your shots cover the hitting area of the cannon uniformly then you
can obtain the area of the lake by estimating the probability to hit it:
\begin{equation}
S_{fig} = p S_{hit} ,
\end{equation}
here \( S_{fig} \) is an estimate of the surface area of
certain geometric shape (lake for example), \( p \) is an estimate
of the probability to hit the shape, while \( S_{hit} \) is the
hitting area of the cannon. The obtained are of course will be only
approximate, but one can arrive reasonably near the actual answer.
Next we illustrate this method by applying it towards three geometric
shapes - square, circle and Euclidean egg. Why the Euclidean egg? Well,
there are numerous reasons for it, one of them being Easter. Happy
Easter!