Year: 1997
Paper: 1
Question Number: 14
Course: UFM Statistics
Section: Exponential Distribution
No solution available for this problem.
Difficulty Rating: 1484.0
Difficulty Comparisons: 1
Banger Rating: 1484.0
Banger Comparisons: 1
The maximum height $X$ of flood water
each year on a certain
river is a random variable with density function
\begin{equation*}
{\mathrm f}(x)=
\begin{cases}
\exp(-x)&\text{if $x\geqslant 0$,}\\
0&\text{otherwise}.
\end{cases}
\end{equation*}
It costs $y$ megadollars each year
to prepare for flood water
of height $y$ or less. If $X\leqslant y$
no further costs are incurred
but if $X\geqslant y$ the cost of flood damage
is $r+s(X-y)$ megadollars where $r,s>0$.
The total cost $T$ megadollars is thus
given by
\begin{equation*}
T=
\begin{cases}
y&\text{if $X\leqslant y$},\\
y+r+s(X-y)&\text{if $X>y$}.
\end{cases}
\end{equation*}
Show that we can minimise the expected total cost
by taking
\[y=\ln(r+s).\]