Virgil -- I don't see you contributing anything useful. Please use the wiki to help others along with the problems instead of complaining.

In addition, to Henry: I agree with your idea and your conclusion. We can expand a small amount from your idea by generalizing the forumla for $ X_i $:

$ X_i $ is geom$ (\frac{n - i + 1}{n}) $

E[# needed]=$ \sum_{i=1}^n E[Xi] = \sum_{i=1}^n \frac{n}{n - i + 1} $

I attempted to plug this into matlab's symbolic calculator, but the answer didn't come out to anything I understood.

Also, note for geom(p), variance is $ \frac{1-p}{p^2} $. I don't think we can simply add all the variances up; does anybody have a better idea?

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Abstract algebra continues the conceptual developments of linear algebra, on an even grander scale.

Dr. Paul Garrett