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Selling the Farm
Two competing companies are trying to buy up all the farms in a certain area to build houses. In each year 10% of farmers sell to company 1, 20% sell to company 2, and 70% keep farming. Neither company ever sells any of the farms that they own. Eventually all of the farms will be sold. Assuming that there are a large number of farms initially, what fraction do you expect will be owned by company 1 ?
[Durrett “Elementary Probability”, p 159 # 39]
Computers on the Blink
A university computer room has 30 terminals. Each day there is a 3% chance that a given terminal will break and a 72% chance that that a given broken terminal will be repaired. Assuming that the fates of the various terminals are independent, in the long run what is the distribution of the number of terminals that are broken ?
[Durrett “Elementary Probability” p. 155 # 24]
Basic Markov Chains
In each of the graphs pictured, assume that each arrow leaving a vertex has an equal chance of being followed. Hence if there are thee arrows leaving a vertex then there is a 1/3 chance of each being followed.
- For each of the six pictures, find the Markov transition matrix.
- State if the Markov chain given by this matrix is irreducible and if the matrix is doubly stochastic.
- If the Matrix is irreducible, state if it is aperiodic.
- When possible (given what you know), state if each chain has a unique stationary distribution. If it is obvious that the system does not possess a unique stationary distribution, please state why.
- For two of the chains it is easy to state what is this unique stationary distribution . Which two and what are the two stationary distributions?
