Interesting math problem I can't solve

Revision en1, by kobortor, 2018-01-04 07:37:22

A person plays a game, where they are given a single card in the first round. In each round, they take each of the cards they have and has a 1/4 chance of getting 2 extra cards for the next round, and 1-(1/4)=3/4 chance of getting nothing. (Note that the cards do not otherwise carry over). What is the expected number of rounds they play until they have no more cards?

I have ran some simulations, and came up with a value of roughly 1.46, but I don't know what is the exact value supposed to be.

Here is my code: https://ideone.com/MbP5B9

Tags math, probability, cards, game

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en1 English kobortor 2018-01-04 07:37:22 613 Initial revision (published)