Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2012/ia/paper-2/10f/ii/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 ia Paper 2 10F ii Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
The independent uniform distributions give a constant joint probability density on the unit square. For , integrate over :For the random quadratic with uniform coefficients, real roots require its discriminant to be nonnegative, equivalently . The boundary has probability zero, and the area under this parabola isOn that event the roots are , both nonpositive. Bounding both absolute values by one therefore amounts to bounding the more negative root:Since , squaring the inequality is legitimate and gives . The admissible unit-square region is . Its probability isDividing by the real-root probability gives the requested conditional probability:
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