Calculating the expected value of the amount of same numbers chosen by two people.

expected valueindependenceprobabilityprobability distributions

so I've been stuck all day on one question and I have no idea what to.

This is the problem: Two people choose from a set of integers ranging from 2 to 100.(so 99 different integers) One person chooses 49 times and the other 50 times. However they do it independently the question is what is the expected number of times that these two people have chosen the same integers from the list.
Also they will not choose the same number twice. So both will have a list of numbers made up of distinct integers.

I know how to calculate expected values however in this context I'm so confused that I have no idea how to even begin. Any idea or help will be very much appreciated.

EDIT: This is the exact questioning of the problem and it has to do with TSP(Traveling salesman's problem)

On day 4, you and your colleague randomly select 50 (for you) and 49 (for your
colleague) of the remaining cities 2; : : : ; 100. You make your choices independently
of each other, so it is very likely that there are cities that you visit both. What is
the expected number of cities that you visit both, not including city 1 ?
(Hint: the answer does not have to be an integer number. You can rst consider
the situation of one city that you visit.)

Best Answer

For $i=2,3,\dots,100$ let $X_i$ take value $1$ if number $i$ is chosen by both and let $X_i$ take value $0$ otherwise.

Then the number of numbers chosen by both is: $$X=\sum_{i=2}^{100}X_i$$

Now find $\mathbb EX$ by applying linearity of expectation and symmetry.

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