Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2010/ia/paper-2/10f/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 ia Paper 2 10F b Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The future levels are independent of the observed maximum. Given , the first future levels must be at most , and the th must exceed . Each non-overflow has probability and an overflow has probability . ThereforeThis is a geometric distribution of parameter when . Since has a continuous distribution, conditioning on an exact value is understood via a regular conditional distribution, rather than division by . The formula specifies its usual version. If there is no possible overflow at that threshold, but such thresholds have probability zero for the random observed maximum.
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