An urn has m black balls. At each stage, a black ball is removed and a new ball that is black with probability p and white with probability 1p is put in its place. Find the expected number of stages needed until there are no more black balls in the urn. note: The preceding has possible applications to understanding the AIDS disease. Part of the body’s immune system consists of a certain class of cells known as T-cells. There are2 types of T-cells, called CD4 and CD8. Now, while the total number of T-cells in AIDS sufferers is (at least in the early stages of the disease) the same as that in healthy individuals, it has recently been discovered that the mix of CD4 and CD8 T-cells is different. Roughly 60 percent of the T-cells of a healthy person are of the CD4 type, whereas the percentage of the T-cells that are of CD4 type appears to decrease continually in AIDS sufferers. A recent model proposes that the HIV virus (the virus that causes AIDS) attacks CD4 cells and that the body’s mechanism for replacing killed T-cells does not differentiate between whether the killed T-cell was CD4 or CD8. Instead, it just produces a new T-cell that is CD4 with probability .6 and CD8 with probability .4. However, although this would seem to be a very efficient way of replacing killed T-cells when each one killed is equally likely to be any of the body’s T-cells (and thus has probability .6 of being CD4), it has dangerous consequences when facing a virus that targets only the CD4 T-cells

Short Answer

Expert verified

The expected number isE(X)=m1-p.

Step by step solution

01

Given Information

Let X1define as the number of the stage until the first black ball is replaced with the white ball.

X2define as the number of additional stages until the second black is replaced with the white ball.

02

Explanation

At each stage, a black ball is removed and a new ball,

black with probability pand white with probability 1-pis put in its place.

Let us consider the variable Xindicating the number

of stages needed until there are no more black balls in the urn.

X=X1+X2++Xm

Let X1define as the number of stage until the first black ball is replaced with the white ball,

X2define as the number of additional stages until the second black is replaced with white ball and this continuous.

X3,X4,X5,,Xm.

03

Explanation

E[X]=EX1+X2++Xm

So, E[X1]=11-pfori=1,2,3,..,m.

=11-p+11-p++11-p

=m1-p

04

Final Answer

The expected number isE(X)=m1-p.

Unlock Step-by-Step Solutions & Ace Your Exams!

  • Full Textbook Solutions

    Get detailed explanations and key concepts

  • Unlimited Al creation

    Al flashcards, explanations, exams and more...

  • Ads-free access

    To over 500 millions flashcards

  • Money-back guarantee

    We refund you if you fail your exam.

Over 30 million students worldwide already upgrade their learning with Vaia!

One App. One Place for Learning.

All the tools & learning materials you need for study success - in one app.

Get started for free

Most popular questions from this chapter

The number of people who enter an elevator on the ground floor is a Poisson random variable with mean 10. If there are N floors above the ground floor, and if each person is equally likely to get off at any one of theN floors, independently of where the others get off, compute the expected number of stops that the elevator will make before discharging all of its passengers.

Let X1,,Xnbe independent and identically distributed continuous random variables. We say that a record value occurs at time j,jn,if XjXlfor all 1ij. Show that

(a) E[number of record values]=j=1n1/j

(b) Var(number of record values)=j=1n(j1)/j2

For Example 2i, show that the variance of the number of coupons needed to a mass a full set is equal toi=1N1iN(Ni)2

When Nis large, this can be shown to be approximately equal (in the sense that their ratio approaches 1 as N) to N2π2/6.

A total of n balls, numbered 1through n, are put into n urns, also numbered 1through nin such a way that ball iis equally likely to go into any of the urns 1,2,..i.

Find (a) the expected number of urns that are empty.

(b) the probability that none of the urns is empty.

A group of 20 people consisting of 10 men and 10 women is randomly arranged into 10 pairs of 2 each. Compute the expectation and variance of the number of pairs that consist of a man and a woman. Now suppose the 20 people consist of 10 married couples. Compute the mean and variance of the number of married couples that are paired together.

See all solutions

Recommended explanations on Math Textbooks

View all explanations

What do you think about this solution?

We value your feedback to improve our textbook solutions.

Study anywhere. Anytime. Across all devices.

Sign-up for free