Your basic idea is right here. But … this product isn’t that straightforward.
Say it’s the 100th session. It is a lot of ways, that x becomes greater than y exactly this time. Especially if the formula is x>y+sqr(y) or something alike from the Chebyshev’s arsenal.
If the session is then 101st, this new small probability isn’t much smaller than it was in the 100th session.
Still, you may be right that the product (1-p_n)*(1-p_n+1) … converges to 1⁄2 at the most.
Don’t doubt it, do the math (and http://www.wolframalpha.com/ helps a LOT with this. Provide any formula for probability of guessing “Nth wakeup” such that it sums to 1 (or less) from 1 to infinity. Calculate the sum from 1 to infinity of the product of this and the 0.5^n chance that you’re currently on the Nth wakeup.
You will never find one that sums to better than 0.5.
Your weirdness using X and Y is not helping—any algorithm you can state eventually comes out to “some probability for each N of guessing N”. And when you view it that way, you’ll see that the sum has to be less than 50%.
Your basic idea is right here. But … this product isn’t that straightforward.
Say it’s the 100th session. It is a lot of ways, that x becomes greater than y exactly this time. Especially if the formula is x>y+sqr(y) or something alike from the Chebyshev’s arsenal.
If the session is then 101st, this new small probability isn’t much smaller than it was in the 100th session.
Still, you may be right that the product (1-p_n)*(1-p_n+1) … converges to 1⁄2 at the most.
Well, I doubt it.
Don’t doubt it, do the math (and http://www.wolframalpha.com/ helps a LOT with this. Provide any formula for probability of guessing “Nth wakeup” such that it sums to 1 (or less) from 1 to infinity. Calculate the sum from 1 to infinity of the product of this and the 0.5^n chance that you’re currently on the Nth wakeup.
You will never find one that sums to better than 0.5.
Your weirdness using X and Y is not helping—any algorithm you can state eventually comes out to “some probability for each N of guessing N”. And when you view it that way, you’ll see that the sum has to be less than 50%.