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LFM Pure
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Problem Text
A taxi driver keeps a packet of toffees and a packet of mints in her taxi. From time to time she takes either a toffee (with probability $p$) or mint (with probability $q=1-p$). At the beginning of the week she has $n$ toffees and $m$ mints in the packets. On the $N$th occasion that she reaches for a sweet, she discovers (for the first time) that she has run out of that kind of sweet. What is the probability that she was reaching for a toffee?
Solution (Optional)
\begin{align*} \mathbb{P}(\text{run out reading for toffee on } N\text{th occassion}) &= \binom{N-1}{n}p^nq^{N-1-n}p \end{align*} Since out of the first $N-1$ times, we need to choose toffee $n$ times, and then choose it again for the $N$th time. Therefore: \begin{align*} \mathbb{P}(\text{reaching for toffee} | \text{run out on }N\text{th occassion}) &= \frac{\mathbb{P}(\text{reaching for toffee and run out on }N\text{th occassion})}{\mathbb{P}(\text{reaching for toffee and run out on }N\text{th occassion}) + \mathbb{P}(\text{reaching for mint and run out on }N\text{th occassion})} \\ &= \frac{ \binom{N-1}{n}p^nq^{N-1-n}p}{ \binom{N-1}{n}p^nq^{N-1-n}p + \binom{N-1}{m}q^mp^{N-1-m}q} \\ &= \frac{ \binom{N-1}{n}}{ \binom{N-1}{n} + \binom{N-1}{m} \l \frac{q}{p} \r^{m+ n+ 2-N}} \end{align*} Some conclusions we can draw from this are: As $p \to 1, q \to 0$, the probability they were reaching for a Toffee tends to $1$. (And vice versa). If $p = q$, then the probability is: \begin{align*} \frac{ \binom{N-1}{n}}{ \binom{N-1}{n} + \binom{N-1}{m} } \end{align*} Since $n+1 \leq N \leq n+m+1$ where $n \geq m$ we can notice that: \begin{align*} \text{if } N = m + n + 1 && \binom{m+n+1 - 1}{n} &= \binom{m+n+1 - 1}{m} & \text{ so } \mathbb{P} = \frac12 \\ \text{if } N = n+k && \binom{n+k-1}{n} &< \binom{n+k-1}{m} & \text{ so } \mathbb{P} < \frac12 \\ \end{align*}
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