In 1733 the French naturalist Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, posed and solved the following problem in geometric probability: when a needle of length L is dropped onto a wooden floor constructed from boards of width D (where D ≥ L), what is the probability that it will lie across a seam between two boards? Buffon determined that the probability is 2L/Dπ. His proof of the now-famous Buffon’s needle problem appeared in print 44 years later.

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Richeson, David. A π-less Buffon's Needle Problem. Mathematics Magazine 79, no. 5 (2006): 385-389. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0025570X.2006.11953438

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