8/29/2016

Each box of a particular brand of cereal contains one of a set of n different plastic animals.  Suppose that the animal in each box is equally likely to be any one of the set of n, independently of what animals are in other boxes.  What is the expected number of cereal boxes a collector must buy in order to obtain a complete set of animals?

• Solutions
  • Discussion of guesses and simulation results from our first class on Friday
  • Mathematical Approach
    Based on the sum of geometric random variables.  Let Xi denote the number of additional boxes required to get i different animals once (i-1) have been obtained.  Thus T = X1 + X2 + … + Xn.

The Let's Make a Deal Applet

Monty Hall Dilemma

Virtual Laboratories in Probability and Statistics