Paper 2, Section II, F
(a) State Markov's inequality.
(b) Let be a given positive integer. You toss an unbiased coin repeatedly until the first head appears, which occurs on the th toss. Next, I toss the same coin until I get my first tail, which occurs on my th toss. Then you continue until you get your second head with a further tosses; then I continue with a further tosses until my second tail. We continue for turns like this, and generate a sequence , of random variables. The total number of tosses made is . (For example, for , a sequence of outcomes gives and .)
Find the probability-generating functions of the random variables and . Hence or otherwise obtain the mean values and .
Obtain the probability-generating function of the random variable , and find the mean value .
Prove that, for ,
For , calculate , and confirm that it satisfies Markov's inequality.