Bayesian update from one slip drawn from a box
Question
Box 1 contains eight slips numbered through . Box 2 contains eight slips as well: four marked and four marked . You choose a box by a fair coin flip and draw one slip at random; it reads , and you put it back. You then make further draws, with replacement, from that same box. What is the expected number of these draws that show a ?
Short answer
. A is drawn with probability from box 1 and from box 2, so by Bayes the posterior on box 2 is . The expected count is .
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Open the worked solutionLessons behind this question
- Conditional Probability, Total Probability, and Bayes' Rule
- Worked Examples — Probability Trees, Monty Hall, and Bayesian Updating
- Expectation, Mean, and Variance
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