Negative Log Probability

If x x is a random real number between 0 and 1, what is the probability that ln x \lfloor-\ln x\rfloor is an even number?

e 2 e \frac{e-2}{e} 2 e \frac{2}{e} 1 e + 1 \frac{1}{e+1} e e + 1 \frac{e}{e+1}

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1 solution

Joseph Newton
Mar 26, 2018

For ln x \lfloor-\ln x\rfloor to equal an even number 2 k 2k (where k is an integer), then 2 k + 1 > ln x 2 k 2 k 1 < ln x 2 k e 2 k 1 < x e 2 k 2k+1>-\ln x\geq2k\\ -2k-1<\ln x\leq-2k\\ e^{-2k-1}<x\leq e^{-2k} Now, x x must be between 0 and 1. When k = 0 , e 1 < x 1 k=0,e^{-1}<x\leq 1 and as k , e 2 k 1 0 , e 2 k 0 k\to\infty,e^{-2k-1}\to0,e^{-2k}\to0 . Since all functions here are continuous and monotonically increasing or decreasing, we can conclude that all possible values of x x between 0 and 1 are accounted for by all non-negative integer values of k k (i.e. k = 0 , 1 , 2 , k=0,1,2,\dots ).

The size of the region for a certain value of k k is the upper bound minus the lower bound, i.e. e 2 k e 2 k 1 e^{-2k}-e^{-2k-1} . Therefore the sum of all the regions where ln x \lfloor-\ln x\rfloor is an even number is equal to k = 0 e 2 k e 2 k 1 = e 0 e 1 + e 2 e 3 + e 4 e 5 = n = 0 ( 1 ) n e n = 1 1 e 1 = e e + 1 \sum_{k=0}^\infty e^{-2k}-e^{-2k-1}\\ =e^0-e^{-1}+e^{-2}-e^{-3}+e^{-4}-e^{-5}\dots\\ =\sum_{n=0}^\infty (-1)^n e^{-n}\\ =\frac{1}{1-e^{-1}}\\ =\boxed{\frac{e}{e+1}}

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