Expected disjoint blocks of five black cells
Question
Twenty squares sit in a row, and each is independently painted black or white with probability . A maximal run of consecutive black squares is counted as containing non-overlapping five-blocks (so a run of counts once, a run of counts twice). Let be the total number of five-blocks in the row. Writing in lowest terms, find .
Short answer
. Let be the expected number of (overlapping) windows of black squares. A run of length should count , which is achieved by adding windows of length and subtracting windows one longer (); this yields , confirmed by enumerating all rows.
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