Empirical probability question: if you have N children what is the expected length L of the longest chain of descendants you might have? Ie how long before your lineage dies out? Make suitable assumptions about distributions of offspring.
Feels like a 101 question.
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Replying to
You need more assumptions, in particular what are the ancestors doing?
And what's the death pattern?
I mean if you say that you have just one kid, that kid always has just one kid, and no-one dies before they reproduce, then lineage is forever.
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Replying to
I think the keyword you want is Galton-Watson process:
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