0
$\begingroup$

Question: Given $f(x,y)=e^{-\lambda(x+y)}$ for $x,y\geq0$ and $\lambda>0$, what constant must $f(x,y)$ be multiplied by to get a joint density function?

Work: I obtained $$ \int_{0}^1\int_0^\infty e^{-\lambda x-\lambda y}\,dx\,dy, $$ but I am unsure about the upper bounds. For the inner integral I obtained $$ \frac{1}{\lambda}\int_0^\infty e^{-u}\,du=\frac{1}{\lambda} $$ by $u$-substitution, and for the outer integral I obtained $$ \int_0^1 \frac{1}{\lambda}\,dy=\frac{1}{\lambda} $$ but I'm not sure this is quite right. Should the upper bound for my outer integral be $\infty$? But then the outer integral would diverge. Any ideas as to how to effectively calculate here? What exactly am I missing?

$\endgroup$

1 Answer 1

1
$\begingroup$

Observe that we can factor the joint density as $$ f(x,y)=e^{-\lambda x}e^{-\lambda y}; \quad (x,y\geq 0)\tag{1}. $$ Let $$ I=\int_0^\infty\int_0^\infty f(x,y)\,dx\,dy $$ and note that $$ I=\int_0^\infty\int_0^\infty e^{-\lambda x}e^{-\lambda y}\, dx \,dy =\int_0^\infty e^{-\lambda y}\left[\int_0^\infty e^{-\lambda x}\, dx \right]\,dy =\left[\int_0^\infty e^{-\lambda x}\, dx \right]\left[\int_0^\infty e^{-\lambda y}\, dy \right] $$ whence $$ I=\left[\int_0^\infty e^{-\lambda x}\, dx \right]^2=\frac{1}{\lambda^2} $$ Thus $\lambda ^2I=1$ so $f$ must be multiplied by $\lambda ^2$ to obtain a pdf.

$\endgroup$

You must log in to answer this question.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.