Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2009/ia/paper-2/4f/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 ia Paper 2 4F Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The events are pairwise disjoint and their union is . Finite additivity and the definition of conditional probability therefore give the law of total probability:For the birthday problem, let mean that all birthdays differ. For , sequential conditioning on previous distinct birthdays and independence of random variables giveHere each factor uses the stated bound . For , , soFor a match is certain by the pigeonhole principle. The threshold from the exponential bound is , so suffices.
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