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1. Re: STEP 2003 Solutions Thread
(Original post by tommm)
Thank you, I shall remember that
No worries. You may like to have a look here for some more codes that may not be on the TSR LateX page, but you are in need of
2. Re: STEP 2003 Solutions Thread
I/13
Show that the given probability is true
Spoiler:
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Let and be the results of team A and team B respectively.

The probability of each team scoring can be modelled by a binomial distribution:

The situation of neither side winning after the initial 10-shot period occurs when each team has the same number of success, or fails.

Let denote the number of fails.

Therefore
as required.

Show that the expected number of shots is given by the stated expression
Spoiler:
Show

My LaTeX is probably all wrong and I can't figure out the second part, but there's half a solution (I think), and it's my first one, so woo!
Last edited by AnonyMatt; 19-04-2009 at 00:31.
3. Re: STEP 2003 Solutions Thread
STEP II 2003 Q8

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Stationary values occur when . We will use this in the original differential equation, so we obtain

Now, if , then from our expression for y, , which would lead to a fraction in our equation for becoming infinite. Therefore, we disregard y = 0 as a stationary point.
Therefore, stationary points occur at

So

Therefore as required.

When as

When as

I've used a graphing program to draw the two graphs. The first is in the case ; the second is when . Note the location of the turning points.

4. Re: STEP 2003 Solutions Thread
STEP II 2003 Q5
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E = a/2, F = (p+b)/2, G = b/2, H = (p+a)/2 =>
EF = a/2+x[p+b-a]/2
GH= b/2+y[p+a-b]/2
for which there is a solution EF = GH = (p+a+b)/4 when x = y = 1/2
so we have s = (d+t)/2 = (p+a+b)/4 so the position vector of T is t = (p+a+b)/2-d
the plane OAB is the x-y plane i.e. z = 0 so the component of T in the k direction is 0, so considering the vectors in the k direction we have: 0 = n/2-d <=> d = n/2
Last edited by Dadeyemi; 25-05-2009 at 13:13.
5. Re: STEP 2003 Solutions Thread
6. Re: STEP 2003 Solutions Thread
I/14

I feel like I may have messed up the second part, anyone care checking?

i
The probability distribution we are given is poisson . Now the probability she is called by 0 friends, 1 friend and >=2 friends are interesting.

Now the expected value of the number of friends she sees is
I.e. as required.

ii
A new friend calls with probability p, independent of the other calls. Now P(no calls)=, P(one call)= There is now a new combination that can render two calls in a day, namely that one of her old friends call and the new friend. The probability for this event is

The intriguing part is to find p(>=2).

We can start by looking at P(2 calls), P(3 calls) and P(4 calls)

When looking as n goes to infinity (P(n calls)) this leads to: (recall the taylor series definition of e^x for the sum)

All in all we have:

So the expected number of friends for her to go out with
7. Re: STEP 2003 Solutions Thread
Question 12, STEP I, 2003
(i)
If we let R be the score on the first ball and S be the score on the second, we find that, for some R = r and S = s, because the drawings are independent and each is equally likely to be drawn

If we sum up all the probabilities, the expected value comes out to:

(ii)
Again, letting R be the value of the first ball and S the value of the second ball, for any R = r and S = s, where r and s are not equal, they each have a probability of

Again, summing up all the probabilities, the expected value comes out to:

This can be rewritten as

Last edited by Unbounded; 21-04-2009 at 01:30.
8. Re: STEP 2003 Solutions Thread
STEP II Q6

First part:

Spoiler:
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The sketches are attached at the end of the post. Essentially what we do to sketch from the sketch of is translate it one unit downwards each time then reflect in the x-axis whatever is below it. Trying some values can make things clearer...

Second part:

Spoiler:
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Following from the sketch in the second attachment:

From the sketch, one can see that when n is even, the area is represented by lots of R.

Hence

Now, from the sketches of and one can see that (for even n) is made up of triangles of base 2 and height 1 (i.e areas equal to 1).

Hence

as required.

Attached Thumbnails

Last edited by Horizontal 8; 20-04-2009 at 21:49.
9. Re: STEP 2003 Solutions Thread
FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUU I just got halfway through typing up II/6 when I realised it'd been done.
10. Re: STEP 2003 Solutions Thread
(Original post by tommm)
FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUU I just got halfway through typing up II/6 when I realised it'd been done.

Sorry
11. Re: STEP 2003 Solutions Thread
(Original post by Horizontal 8)
Sorry

I've done all 8 pures on II now don't think I've ever done that on a paper before.
12. Re: STEP 2003 Solutions Thread
I just logged on to type my solution up I did it earlier today at work when bored - it was a nice and unusually simple question I thought.
13. Re: STEP 2003 Solutions Thread
STEP III, 2003, Question 7

Spoiler:
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The line through A and B is given by . PN is perpendicular to this line, and so has gradient .

The equation of the line through P and N can therefore be written , which is satisfied by , giving .

Solving simultaneously gives , and as required.

The line through P and N is given by .

Therefore, for N to lie on this line:

Rearranging gives the required result

and are the gradients of BP and AP respectively. Therefore, for N to lie on XY, BP and AP must be perpendicular.
Last edited by Daniel Freedman; 03-05-2009 at 19:50.
14. Re: STEP 2003 Solutions Thread
(Original post by tommm)
STEP II 2003 Q2

Spoiler:
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Let

We find, using the usual method, that

Therefore

Now remembering that , and multiplying both sides by 3, we achieve the required result.

For the second part, by comparison with the first, we want to find an equation of a similar form that leads to

Using a bit of guesswork, we find that this equation is

which is satisfied by

Rearranging , we get:

and remembering that leads to the required result.

Genius. I spent an hour getting two geometrical proofs, which are actually quite nice, but so much more complicated to find. I attatched one I scanned in, the other is similar. Your method is really neat though.
Attached Thumbnails

15. Re: STEP 2003 Solutions Thread
(Original post by toasted-lion)
Genius. I spent an hour getting two geometrical proofs, which are actually quite nice, but so much more complicated to find. I attatched one I scanned in, the other is similar. Your method is really neat though.
Very nice. In STEP, if there's two parts, you usually have to apply the method from the first part to the second part.
16. Re: STEP 2003 Solutions Thread
(Original post by toasted-lion)
Genius. I spent an hour getting two geometrical proofs, which are actually quite nice, but so much more complicated to find. I attatched one I scanned in, the other is similar. Your method is really neat though.
I like what you've done, though I would have never attempted to come up with that myself.

I'm pretty sure Tom's way is the way you're expected to do it.
Last edited by Daniel Freedman; 04-05-2009 at 13:36.
17. Re: STEP 2003 Solutions Thread
(Original post by tommm)
.
There's a problem with the LaTeX in your answer for III, 10. I can't spot it though (most probably an extra / missing curly bracket)
18. Re: STEP 2003 Solutions Thread
(Original post by Daniel Freedman)
There's a problem with the LaTeX in your answer for III, 10. I can't spot it though (most probably an extra / missing curly bracket)
Yeah, I just put in an extra curly bracket and it's showing now, but it's still not right...
19. Re: STEP 2003 Solutions Thread
(Original post by tommm)
STEP II 2003 Q4

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The required area is given by

, which can be seen from drawing a diagram[/latex]

Upon using the substitution , and some manipulation with the cosine double-angle formula, we get

(N.B. that represents limits of integration)

The difficulty in evaluating this lies in the evaluation of . First, using the sine double angle formula, we get

By drawing a suitable right-angled triangle, we find that and from this we can find the required result.

Hmm... yuk! Consider the area of the sector OGH and the triangle OGH, subtracting to get the segment. Nice perseverance, but it's actually pretty easy.
(Original post by tommm)
STEP II 2003 Q4

Spoiler:
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To find the area in the three listed cases, we note that i) and ii) are both specific versions of iii), therefore we need only find the answer to iii) and i) and ii) follow easily.

From a diagram, we see that we must replace d with the perpendicular distance from the line to the furthest point on the circle from the line.
This gives us:

, where D is the shortest distance from the origin to the line. The distance from a point (x, y) to the centre is given by

But the point (x, y) lies on the line y = mx + c, therefore

To find the minimum value of D, we must differentiate this expression and set it equal to 0. This gives us

substituting this back into our expression for D^2, we get

and therefore, to find the new area, we must modify (*) such that

The answer to i) follows by letting m = 0; the answer to ii) follows by letting a = b = 0.

Are you sure we want the distance to the edge and not to the centre? We had d as the distance to centre before. I got:

for (i) (note the x-coord of the centre is irrelevant)
for (ii) (perpendicular distance)
for (iii) (perpendicular distance again)

and I just plugged these straight into the equation from the first part. As you noted (i) and (ii) follow from (iii), but I'm sure they put them in that order for a reason (ie to give you bite-sized chunks of the overall thought-process). Please tell me if I made a mistake

P.S. You got a stray /latex tag :P
20. Re: STEP 2003 Solutions Thread
STEP III Q13

(i)
Spoiler:
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The probability the rabbit leaves straight away through A is 1/3 (given which, the probability of leaving through A is 1), the probability of going to B is 1/3 (given which, the probability of leaving through A is PB) etc.

So

(ii)
Spoiler:
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Using similar arguments and simple algebra:

(iii)
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Now call PXT the probability the rabbit starts in A, does not visit C, and leaves through tunnel T. Call the probability we require P.

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