Practice Problems 2

6 August 2019

1 Biased dice Problem

1. Consider a biased dice for which the probability of obtaining 1,2,3,4,5,6
1 2 3 4 5 6
are , , , , and respectively. You are doing the experiment
15 15 15 15 15 15
of rolling this dice once.
Denote by X, the random variable that is the numerical value you observe
after rolling the dice. Compute the expectation, standard deviation and
variance of X.
2. One would now like to play Ludo with this dice. The rules of Ludo are
that you can only start playing after you obtain either 1 or 6 on the dice
throw. Denote by Y the random variable which for a single dice throw,
represents whether it results in a throw which will help you start playing.
Observe that Y can be represented as a Bernoulli random variable. Write
the probability distribution of Y , find the expectation and variance of Y .
3. In the game of Ludo, if you don’t get a 1 or 6 in a single throw, you
get a chance again after some time. Let Z denote the number of chances
that you will require before you can start playing. Observe that Z is not
deterministic and has some variation. Find the expectation of Z, or the
average number of chances that you will have to spend before you can
start playing.
If given an option of playing with this biased dice or the usual unbiased
dice, which one would you choose. (Take the objective to be starting to
play the game as early as possible)
(Optional) - Also, find the variance in Z.