Matching-integer game paying the square of the number
Question
A banker and you each secretly pick a positive integer, each using any probability distribution you like on the positive integers. If you pick the same integer , you receive dollars; otherwise nothing. Neither sees the other's distribution, and both play optimally (you maximise, the banker minimises). Your expected payout has the form with integers . Find .
Short answer
. The banker should make your payoff the same for every , i.e. choose with probability ; normalising with gives . Then any guess earns , so , .
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Open the worked solutionLessons behind this question
- Counting and Combinatorics
- Expectation, Mean, and Variance
- Conditional Expectation and Variance Revisited
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