4 Aug
2004
4 Aug
'04
10:35 a.m.
Correction. Let N be the unknown actual number of objects. Let n be the number of draws, with replacement. Let d be the number of distinct objects found. Let P(d|N,n) be the probability of getting d when N and n are known (so that the sum of P(d|N,n) over all d equals 1). Then P(d|N,n) equals n! times binomial(N,d) times the coefficient of t^n in [exp(t/N)-1]^d. By Bayes theorem, this equals the likelihood of N given the observed n and d. I originally said t^d instead of t^n. Gene __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - 100MB free storage! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail