Consider the following experiment. I roll a die repeatedly until the die returns 6, then I count the number of times 3 appeared in the random variable $X$. What is $E[X]$?
Thoughts: I expect to roll the die 6 times before 6 appears (this part is geometric), and on the preceding 5 rolls each roll has a $1/5$ chance of returning a 3. Treating this as binomial, I therefore expect to count 3 once, so $E[X]=1$.
Problem: Don't know how to model this problem mathematically. Hints would be appreciated.
Best Answer
We can restrict ourselves to dice throws with outcomes $3$ and $6$. Among these throws, both outcomes are equally likely. This means that the index $Y$ of the first $6$ is geometrically distributed with parameter $\frac12$, hence $\mathbb{E}(Y)=2$. The number of $3$s occuring before the first $6$ equals $Y-1$ and has expected value $1$.