Particle Boom

Three particles, say X,Y,X,Y, and ZZ , start at integer positions x<y<zx < y < z , where x,y,x,y, and zz have the same parity. The three particles perform independent simple symmetric random walks on the integers. This means that each particle moves ±1\pm 1 with equal probability each minute, independently of the other particles. Find the expected number of minutes until there is a collision between particles when x=10,y=20,x = 10, y = 20, and z=40z = 40 .

Answer format: enter an integer.