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ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2002/iii/paper-42/3/ii/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 42 3 ii Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A system containing a red giant and another evolved component is either a giant–giant pair or an unordered giant–white dwarf pair. At common age , these disjoint possibilities have conditional probabilities and . The conditional evolved-companion fraction in a coeval binary population therefore has numeratorDivide by the fraction of systems containing at least one giant:Thus just over of giant-containing binaries have an evolved companion. The numerator is a fraction of all binaries; it is not itself the requested conditional fraction.
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