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Mathematics 7 Online
OpenStudy (anonymous):

Question about summation with Geometric Distribution. See below.

OpenStudy (anonymous):

So my geometric distribution is as follows \[P[X=k]=(\frac{ 5 }{ 6 })^{k-1}(\frac{ 1 }{ 6 })\]

OpenStudy (anonymous):

What I want to find is \[P[X \le x]=\sum_{k=1}^{x}P[X=k]=???????\]

OpenStudy (anonymous):

\[\begin{align*} P(X\le x)&=\sum_{k=1}^xP(X=k)\\[1ex] &=\sum_{k=1}^x\left(\frac{5}{6}\right)^{k-1}\frac{1}{6}\\[1ex] &=\frac{1}{5}\sum_{k=1}^x\left(\frac{5}{6}\right)^{k-1} \end{align*}\]Recall that \[\sum_{k=1}^n ar^{k-1}=\frac{a\left(1-r^n\right)}{1-r}\]So to compute your desired probability, you can use the formula with \(a=\dfrac{1}{5}\) and \(r=\dfrac{5}{6}\).

OpenStudy (anonymous):

thank you... as I'm sure you meant to put a = 1/6, but I got it.

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