Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-year-1-of-the-computer-science-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2015/digital-systems-linear-algebra-introduction-to-formal-proof-resit/5/b/solution

Use the state order Tall, Medium, Short and column probability distributions, so that . The th column records the child's probability distribution given parent state . Thus the transition matrix is
Every entry is nonnegative and every column sums to one. This convention also gives the requested property . A row-distribution convention would use the transposed transition matrix consistently instead. The stated Markov chain is the mathematical model to analyze; no additional biological assumptions are needed.

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