Finding Joint Density for Minimum of Independent Variables: $\min(A,B)$ Formula

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SUMMARY

The joint density function for the minimum of two independent random variables \(A\) and \(B\) is derived using their individual density functions \(f_A\) and \(f_B\). The correct formula for the density of \(C = \min(A, B)\) is \(f_C(c) = f_A(c)(1 - F_B(c)) + f_B(c)(1 - F_A(c))\), where \(F_A\) and \(F_B\) are the cumulative distribution functions of \(A\) and \(B\), respectively. The final expression simplifies to \(f_C(c) = 2(\lambda + \mu)e^{-c(\lambda + \mu)}\) for exponential distributions with parameters \(\lambda\) and \(\mu\).

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Jason4
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I have:

$f_A=\lambda e^{-\lambda a}$

$f_B=\mu e^{-\mu b}$

I need to find the density for $C=\min(A,B)$

($A$ and $B$ are independent).

Is this correct or utterly wrong?

$f_C(c)=f_A(c)+f_B(c)-f_A(c)F_B(c)-F_A(c)f_B(c)$

$=\lambda e^{-\lambda c}+\mu e^{-\mu c}-\lambda e^{-\lambda c}(1-e^{-\mu c})-(1-e^{-\lambda c})\mu e^{-\mu c}$

$=\lambda e^{-\lambda c}e^{-\mu c}+\mu e^{-\lambda c}e^{-\mu c}$

$=2(\lambda+\mu)e^{-c(\lambda+\mu)}$
 
Last edited:
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Jason said:
I have:

$f_A=\lambda e^{-\lambda a}$

$f_B=\mu e^{-\mu b}$

I need to find the density for $C=\min(A,B)$

($A$ and $B$ are independent).

Is this correct or utterly wrong?

$f_C(c)=f_A(c)+f_B(c)-f_A(c)F_B(c)-F_A(c)f_B(c)$

You need to explain where this comes from.

Because we have two cases; \( A<B\) and \(A\ge B\) I would start:

$ \large f_C(c)=f_A(c)Pr(B>c|A=c)+Pr(A>c|B=c)) $

then independence reduces this to:

$ \large f_C(c)=f_A(c)Pr(B>c)+f_B(c)Pr(A>C) $

so:

\( \large f_C(c)=f_A(c)(1-F_B(c))+f_B(c)(1-F_A(c) \))

CB
 
Last edited:

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