Assignment-1

Q5

We’ve an unbiased k-faced die, numbered 1 to k:

a) Over expectation how many times you need to roll the die until you see
the number ⌊√k⌋1 on its upward face.

Ans:

We are trying to find the expected number of rolls required until we see the
number ⌊√k⌋.
The probability of rolling ⌊√k⌋ on any given roll is 1/k, because there can be
only one favorable outcome, which is rolling ⌊√k⌋ out of k possible outcomes.
Let X be the random variable which denotes the number of rolls needed to get
⌊√k⌋. We can see that X follows a geometric distribution with parameter p = 1/k,
here p is the probability of success on each trial.

We can give the expected value of a geometric distribution with parameter p by

E(X) = 1/p.
E(X) = 1 / (1/k) = k
So, on average, we need k rolls to see the number ⌊√k⌋ on the die.

b) Over expectation how many times you need to roll the die until you see
every number from 1 to k at least once on its upward face.

Ans:

This is what we call the coupon collector’s problem, here we have an unbiased
die with k unique sides, we need to find the expected number of rolls required to
obtain every unique side at least once on the front.
The event of observing the ith unique coupon follows a geometric distribution,
given as follows:

The probability of observing a unique side on the first roll is: k/k = 1
The probability of observing a unique side on the second roll is: k-1/k
The probability of observing a unique side on the second roll is: k-2/k
and so on,
which is of the general form: k-i+1/k,
if we consider a random variable Xi, then the number of coupons needed to see
the ith unique side: E[Xi] = 1/pi.

Therefore, total number of rolls required:

Sum of all 1/pi, where i ranges from 1 to k:
E[𝛴Xi] = 𝛴1/pi = 𝛴 (k/k-i+1)

This is a harmonic series, which roughly equals k*log(k).

c) Let k = 3 and the die is biased, i.e., P(1) = P(3) = ¼ and P(2) = ½ . Over
expectation how many times you need to roll the die until you see every
number from 1 to 3 at least once on its upward face.

Ans:

When k = 3 and the die is biased, we have three possible outcomes with the
given probabilities:

P(1) = ¼
P(2) = ½
P(3) = ¼

If we consider a random variable X, we know from the coupon collector’s

problem that, E[Xi] = 1/pi.

So,
the expected number of rolls to collect the first unique number is 1/P(1) = 4.
the expected number of rolls to collect the second unique number is 1/P(2) = 2.
the expected number of rolls to collect the third unique number is 1/P(3) = 4.

So, the total expected number of rolls to see every number from 1 to 3 at least
once is:

E = 4 + 2 + 4 = 10 rolls.