I'm trying to solve a problem as part of my research and it's giving me fits. It seems like it should be simple, but I can't wrap my brain around how to do it. The problem is:
Suppose X~N(0,s), and Y is a random variable that has a probability mass point at 0 but is otherwise uniformally distributed on (0,t] so that:
f(y)=k, y=0
f(y)=(1-k)(1/t), 0 < y < t
f(y)=0 otherwise
What is
Pr(y < A | x + y > B)
where A and B are arbitrary constants?
I think I've calculated the convolution of X and Y, but I'm not sure how to get the density from there (and I'm not sure I have the convolution right either). Thanks for any help you can provide.
MrFancy
Jul25-08, 10:51 AM
Does this look like something that isn't going to have an analytical solution and would need to be simulated?
Sorry for the sloppy notation, but if you change the limits of the integral, I think you should be able to compute the answer.
MrFancy
Jul29-08, 12:48 PM
OK, thanks a lot, I hadn't thought of using the law of total probability.
Here's what I did, simplifying a little so that Y has a mass point at 0 and is otherwise U[0,1] instead of U[0,t]:
For the Pr(Y<a|Y>b-x) part,
1. take the cdf of Y evaluated at a, which is a(1-k)+k
2. subtract the cdf of Y evaluated at b-x, which is (b-x)(1-k)+k
3. divide by (1- the cdf of Y evaluated at b-x), which is 1-((b-x)(1-k)+k)
The bounds of integration should be b-a to positive infinity, since this probability is 0 if x<(b-a). Then the Pr(X=x) part is just the pdf of a normal random variable. This gives me:
Does that look right? If so, isn't that integral too messy to evaluate?
Focus
Aug1-08, 07:07 AM
OK, thanks a lot, I hadn't thought of using the law of total probability.
Here's what I did, simplifying a little so that Y has a mass point at 0 and is otherwise U[0,1] instead of U[0,t]:
For the Pr(Y<a|Y>b-x) part,
1. take the cdf of Y evaluated at a, which is a(1-k)+k
2. subtract the cdf of Y evaluated at b-x, which is (b-x)(1-k)+k
3. divide by (1- the cdf of Y evaluated at b-x), which is 1-((b-x)(1-k)+k)
The bounds of integration should be b-a to positive infinity, since this probability is 0 if x<(b-a). Then the Pr(X=x) part is just the pdf of a normal random variable. This gives me:
Does that look right? If so, isn't that integral too messy to evaluate?
What you did looks correct except that it should be exp (x...) but i think that was a typo. I don't know if you can integrate that or not, certainly you can approximate it using numerical methods. If you want to solve the integral I suggest using a software or asking someone else as I suck at calculus and woke up quite early this morning. Good luck!