3 Aug
2004
3 Aug
'04
12:31 p.m.
Gene Salamin wrote:
Let P(N,n) be the probability that in n picks each of the N items is drawn at least once. Then P(N,n) equals n! times the coefficient of t^n in [exp(t/N)-1]^N.
On a related note, suppose I have a bin of N distinct things, but I don't know N. I'm allowed to choose-with-replacement k times, and I can recognize things I've seen before, so that I can build a histogram of how many things I saw t times, for t=1,2,3,... How do I best guess N? --Michael Kleber