Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 ia Paper 2 9F b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
This is the waiting time to observe both Bernoulli outcomes. Write , and let record the sex of the first captured animal. That first capture is always needed. If is male, every subsequent trial independently produces the required female with probability , so has a geometric distribution with parameter . If is female, has a geometric distribution with parameter . By the law of total expectation,Since , this simplifies to , orThe expectation includes both the first capture and the final capture completing the pair.