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A hint to get started

Put the squared deviation inside the expectation

Alex and his friend stand randomly in a queue with three other people. X is the number of people between Alex and his friend.

(i) Show that P(X=2)=0.2P(X=2)=0.2.

(ii) Tabulate the distribution of X.

(iii) Find E(X)E(X) and E[(X−1)2]E[(X-1)^2]. Hence find Var⁡(X)\operatorname{Var}(X).

[2017/ACJC/II/6]

CJC · Discussion · Question 4

The number of admissible position pairs decreases from 4 to 1 as the gap grows.

Read the worked solution