Year: 1994
Paper: 2
Question Number: 13
Course: LFM Stats And Pure
Section: Geometric Distribution
No solution available for this problem.
Difficulty Rating: 1600.0
Difficulty Comparisons: 0
Banger Rating: 1629.1
Banger Comparisons: 15
The makers of Cruncho (`The Cereal Which Cares') are giving away a
series of cards depicting $n$ great mathematicians. Each packet of
Cruncho contains one picture chosen at random. Show that when I have
collected $r$ different cards the expected number of packets I must
open to find a new card is $n/(n-r)$ where $0\leqslant r\leqslant n-1.$
Show by means of a diagram, or otherwise, that
\[
\frac{1}{r+1}\leqslant\int_{r}^{r+1}\frac{1}{x}\,\mathrm{d}x\leqslant\frac{1}{r}
\]
and deduce that
\[
\sum_{r=2}^{n}\frac{1}{r}\leqslant\ln n\leqslant\sum_{r=1}^{n-1}\frac{1}{r}
\]
for all $n\geqslant2.$
My children will give me no peace until we have the complete set of
cards, but I am the only person in our household prepared to eat Cruncho
and my spouse will only buy the stuff if I eat it. If $n$ is large,
roughly how many packets must I expect to consume before we have the
set?