Properties of a Simple Random Walk with Boundaries

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This Demonstration shows several basic properties of random walks on a one-dimensional lattice of points . At each step, the probability of moving to the right or left is
and
, respectively; the walk ends when it reaches
or
. As a function of the starting position
, we show the probability of the walk ending at the right boundary, and the average number of steps taken during the walk (regardless of which boundary it eventually hits).
Contributed by: Peter Falloon (March 2011)
Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA
Snapshots
Details
The formulas for these quantities can be found by solving second-order difference equations.
G. Grimmett and D. Stirzaker, Probability and Random Processes, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Permanent Citation
"Properties of a Simple Random Walk with Boundaries"
http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/PropertiesOfASimpleRandomWalkWithBoundaries/
Wolfram Demonstrations Project
Published: March 7 2011