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Abstract:
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The coupon collector’s problem (CCP), a well-known problem in classical combinatorial probability, can be stated as follows: Suppose there exists n different types of objects and we wish to accumulate all n of these. What is the expected number of objects we need to collect to obtain the complete collection? As is well known, under the assumptions 1.At each trial, an object is chosen at random, 2. Each object is equally likely to be chosen, 3. The choices are independent
this problem can be solved easily by the use of geometric distributions. In this paper, we will show how to apply Markov chains to obtain the solution of CCP. The advantage of this approach is that it yields itself easily to the solution of the generalized problem where condition (2) above is dropped.
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