Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 ia Paper 2 3F Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
For events with , the conditional probability is . Applying the definition in both orders gives Bayes theorem:Conditionally on , independent fair tosses give a binomial distribution for the head count, so . The joint probability mass function is consequentlyUse the law of total probability and the differentiated geometric series, , to obtain . The posterior coin count after exactly one head is thereforeThese probabilities sum to one by the same series identity. The conditioning weights possible coin counts by their likelihood of producing exactly one head.