On the linear search problem

Abstract

A man in an automobile searches for another man who is located at some point of a certain road. He starts at a given point and knows in advance the probability that the second man is at any given point of the road. Since the man being sought might be in either direction from the starting point, the searcher will, in general, have to turn around many times before finding his target. How does he search so as to minimize the expected distance travelled? When can this minimum expectation actually be achieved? This paper answers the second of these questions.