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Expected number of four-card subsets from a Poisson box

Question

A box contains N∼Poisson(6)N\sim\text{Poisson}(6) cards. Someone will pick a set of 44 of them. What is the expected number of different 4-card sets that can be picked, i.e. E[(N4)]\mathbb{E}\big[\binom N4\big] (with (nk)=0\binom nk=0 when n<kn<k)?

Short answer

5454. (N4)=N(N−1)(N−2)(N−3)4!\binom N4=\tfrac{N(N-1)(N-2)(N-3)}{4!}, and the falling factorial moments of a Poisson(λ\lambda) are λk\lambda^k. So the expectation is 6424=54\tfrac{6^4}{24}=54.

Adapted from QuantQuestions.io; question and answer rewritten by SelfMadeQuant.com.

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