by Guest » Sun Nov 07, 2021 10:19 pm
Since the target value is equally likely to be any of the n numbers, the probability it is a specific number is 1/n. With a sequential search, the expected value of X is [tex]\sum_{i=1}^n i/n= (1/n)\sum_{i=1}^n i= (1/n)(n(n+1)/2)= (n+1)/2[/tex]. You would "expect" to find the middle number.