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Seeing a one when the roll count is geometric

Question

Toss a fair coin until the first head appears; suppose that takes nn tosses. Then roll a fair six-sided die nn times. What is the probability that at least one of these rolls shows a 11?

Short answer

2/72/7. Compute the complement: no 11 in nn rolls has probability (5/6)n(5/6)^n, and n=kn=k with probability 2−k2^{-k}, so ∑k≥1(5/12)k=5/127/12=57\sum_{k\ge1}(5/12)^k=\tfrac{5/12}{7/12}=\tfrac57. Hence 1−57=271-\tfrac57=\tfrac27.

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

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