# Breaking a stick randomly at two points: Expected value of the largest piece. [duplicate]

If a stick of unit length is broken randomly at two points, to make 3 pieces of stick. What is the expected value of the largest stick.

Is there an elegant solution to this problem?

Thanks.

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• Try using $2$ uniformly distributed random variables. Then the lengths are given by $X$, $Y-X$ and $1-Y$ (assuming $X<Y$). There might be a simpler model, I'll revisit later. – Ennar Aug 12 '15 at 7:08