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Alice's toss count when Bob needs more tosses

Question

Alice and Bob each toss their own fair coin until it first shows heads. Given that Bob needed strictly more tosses than Alice, what is the expected number of tosses Alice made?

Short answer

4/34/3. P(A=n, B>n)=2−n⋅2−n=4−nP(A=n,\,B>n)=2^{-n}\cdot 2^{-n}=4^{-n}, which sums to 13\tfrac13. So AA given A<BA<B is geometric with ratio 14\tfrac14: E=∑n4−n1/3=3⋅49=43E=\tfrac{\sum n4^{-n}}{1/3}=3\cdot\tfrac{4}{9}=\tfrac43.

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