bac-s-maths 2019 Q8
5 marks
Markov Chain / Day-to-Day Transition Probabilities
Exercise 4 (5 points) — Candidates who have not followed the specialization course
Each week, a farmer offers for direct sale to each of his customers a basket of fresh products that contains a single bottle of fruit juice. A statistical study carried out gives the following results:
- at the end of the first week, the probability that a customer returns the bottle from his basket is 0.9;
- if the customer returned the bottle from his basket one week, then the probability that he brings back the bottle from the basket the following week is 0.95;
- if the customer did not return the bottle from his basket one week, then the probability that he brings back the bottle from the basket the following week is 0.2.
A customer is chosen at random from the farmer's clientele. For any non-zero natural number $n$, we denote by $R_n$ the event ``the customer returns the bottle from his basket in the $n$-th week''.
1. a. Model the situation studied for the first two weeks using a weighted tree that will involve the events $R_1$ and $R_2$.
b. Determine the probability that the customer returns the bottles from the baskets of the first and second weeks.
c. Show that the probability that the customer returns the bottle from the basket of the second week is equal to 0.875.
d. Given that the customer returned the bottle from his basket in the second week, what is the probability that he did not return the bottle from his basket in the first week? Round the result to $10^{-3}$.
2. For any non-zero natural number $n$, we denote by $r_n$ the probability that the customer returns the bottle from the basket in the $n$-th week. We then have $r_n = p(R_n)$.
a. Copy and complete the weighted tree (no justification is required).
b. Justify that for any non-zero natural number $n$, $r_{n+1} = 0.75r_n + 0.2$.
c. Prove that for any non-zero natural number $n$, $r_n = 0.1 \times 0.75^{n-1} + 0.8$.
d. Calculate the limit of the sequence $(r_n)$. Interpret the result in the context of the exercise.