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A prisoner is trapped in a cell containing3doors. The first door leads to a tunnel that returns him to his cell after 2days鈥 travel. The second leads to a tunnel that returns him to his cell after 4 days鈥 travel. The third door leads to freedom after 1day of travel. If it is assumed that the prisoner will always select doors 1,2, and 3 with respective probabilities .5,.3, and .2, what is the expected number of days until the prisoner reaches freedom?

Short Answer

Expert verified

The expected number of days until the prisoner reaches freedom is

E[X]=12.

Step by step solution

01

Given information

Given in the question that, a prisoner is trapped in a cell containing3doors. The first door leads to a tunnel that returns him to his cell after 2days鈥 travel. The second leads to a tunnel that returns him to his cell after 4days鈥 travel. The third door leads to freedom after 1day of travel. If it is assumed that the prisoner will always select doors1,2,and 3with respective probabilities .5,.3,and .2,what is the expected number of days until the prisoner reaches freedom?

02

Explanation

Allow Xto signify the quantity of days until the detainee get away and Y mean the entryway the detainee picks. Then

localid="1647510264291" E(X)=.5E[XY=1]+.3E[XY=2]+.2E[XY=3]

Now, E[XY=1]=E[X]+2, since the prisoner will essentially get back to the cell and the issue begins once again.

Similarly, E[XY=2]=E[X]+4.E[XY=3]=1, of course. Hence,

E[X]=.5(E[X]+2)+.3(E[X]+4)+.2=.5E[X]+1+.3E[X]+1.2+.2=.8E[X]+2.4

E[X]=12.

03

Final answer

The expected number of days until the prisoner reaches freedom is

E[X]=12.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

The number of winter storms in a good year is a Poisson random variable with a mean of 3, whereas the number in a bad year is a Poisson random variable with a mean of5. If next year will be a good year with probability .4or a bad year with probability .6, find the expected value and variance of the number of storms that will occur.

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Two envelopes, each containing a check, are placed in front of you. You are to choose one of the envelopes, open it, and see the amount of the check. At this point, either you can accept that amount or you can exchange it for the check in the unopened envelope. What should you do? Is it possible to devise a strategy that does better than just accepting the first envelope? Let Aand B, A<B, denote the (unknown) amounts of the checks and note that the strategy that randomly selects an envelope and always accepts its check has an expected return of (A+B)/2. Consider the following strategy: Let F()be any strictly increasing (that is, continuous) distribution function. Choose an envelope randomly and open it. If the discovered check has the value x, then accept it with probability F(x)and exchange it with probability 1F(x).

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