Skip to content

Expected product of head and tail counts

Question

Toss a fair coin nn times; let XX be the number of heads and YY the number of tails. Writing E[XY]=an2+bn+cd\mathbb{E}[XY]=\dfrac{an^2+bn+c}{d} in lowest terms with integers a,b,c,da,b,c,d, find a+b+c+da+b+c+d.

Short answer

44. Since Y=n−XY=n-X with X∼Bin(n,12)X\sim\text{Bin}(n,\tfrac12), we get XY=nX−X2XY=nX-X^2. Using EX=n2\mathbb{E}X=\tfrac n2 and EX2=n4+n24\mathbb{E}X^2=\tfrac n4+\tfrac{n^2}{4} gives n2−n4\tfrac{n^2-n}{4}, so (a,b,c,d)=(1,−1,0,4)(a,b,c,d)=(1,-1,0,4) and the sum is 44.

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

See the hint and the full worked solution in the question bank (free account).

Open the worked solution

Lessons behind this question

Start with a free lesson: Normal Distribution is part of a free topic. Create a free account, no card needed, to read it in full with worked solutions.

Read it free