Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2009/ia/paper-2/11f/solution

Integrating the uniform density gives . By independence of random variables, . For the remaining expected value, integrate first in :
The value at is supplied by continuity. Therefore, with the harmonic number ,
Conditional on one sample point being , it is a maximal external point precisely when none of the other points falls in the upper-right rectangle . Its area is , so its conditional probability of being maximal is . Both and are independent uniform random variables, hence a given point is maximal with probability . Summing their indicator random variables and applying linearity of expectation gives the expected number of coordinatewise maxima:
This grows only logarithmically with the sample size, even though all points are potential candidates.

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