Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 40 1 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Use the shape-rate convention for the gamma distribution. A shape and rate give expected value and variance . The two moments here force and . Thus , and the geometric-sum moment-generating function becomesPut , and . Then , , andConsequently the geometric sum of shape-two gamma variables has the same probability distribution as the sum of two independent exponential distributions with rates . Their convolution of independent random variables yieldsThe probability density function is zero for . It is nonnegative because , and its integral isThis verifies normalization directly. An alternative check uses the conditional gamma distribution with shape :which is exactly the same density. The expected value supplies a further check.