Suppose $N\sim Poisson(\lambda)$ and $\lambda\sim Unif(0, 10)$ what is the expected value $E(N)$?
I feel like I should just plug in the expected value of Unif(0, 10) but that seems too easy. Anyone have any thoughts?
Suppose $N\sim Poisson(\lambda)$ and $\lambda\sim Unif(0, 10)$ what is the expected value $E(N)$?
I feel like I should just plug in the expected value of Unif(0, 10) but that seems too easy. Anyone have any thoughts?
${\rm E}(N) = {\rm E}{\rm E}(N|\lambda ) = {\rm E}(\lambda ) = 5$.
Elaborating. By the law of total expectation, $ {\rm E}(N) = {\rm E}{\rm E}(N|\lambda ). $ To show that ${\rm E}(N|\lambda ) = \lambda$, note that, given $\lambda = s$, $N$ has mean $s$. Hence, ${\rm E}(N|\lambda =s) = s$, and in turn ${\rm E}(N|\lambda ) = \lambda$. Thus ${\rm E}(N) = {\rm E}(\lambda) = 5$.