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Twelve Divisor Trial (Posted on 2010-04-09) Difficulty: 3 of 5
Barbara writes a sequence of integers starting with the number 12. Each subsequent integer she writes is chosen randomly with equal probability from amongst the positive divisors of the previous integer (including the possibility of the integer itself). She keeps writing integers until she writes the integer 1 for the first time, and then she stops.

An example of one such sequence is 12, 6, 6, 3, 3, 3, 1.

What is the expected value of the number of terms in Barbara’s sequence?

  Submitted by K Sengupta    
Rating: 3.0000 (1 votes)
Solution: (Hide)
121/30= 4.0333333.....

For an explanation, refer to the solution submitted by:
• Daniel in this location.
• Jer in this location.

Comments: ( You must be logged in to post comments.)
  Subject Author Date
re(2): BARBARA IS EXPECTING (tiny error) ,,AN ERROR IS AN ERRORAdy TZIDON2010-04-09 17:36:49
Questionre: analytical solution ????Ady TZIDON2010-04-09 17:31:49
SolutionsolutionCharlie2010-04-09 16:27:06
re: BARBARA IS EXPECTING (tiny error)Jer2010-04-09 15:30:47
SolutionBARBARA IS EXPECTINGAdy TZIDON2010-04-09 15:15:13
solutionJer2010-04-09 15:08:16
analytical solutionDaniel2010-04-09 14:30:21
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