# Looking for a probability distribution

Recently I discussed an experiment with a friend. Assume we start a random experiment. At first there is an array with size $100,000$, all set to $0$. We calculate at each round a random number modulo $2$ and select one random position in that array. If the number in the array is $1$, nothing is changed and otherwise the pre-computed value is set. The question is: how many distinct hash values would we have added in $1$%, $5$%, $50$%, $95$%, $99$% of all cases?

Example: $4$ rounds with array of size $10$:

Array                     Position   random number
[0,...,0]                    5              0
[0,...,0]                    7              1
[0,...0,1,0,0,0]             6              1
[0,..0,.1,1,0,0,0]           6              0
[0,..0,.1,1,0,0,0]           2              0


First we considered this a somehow simple problem, but after thinking for some hours, searching the web, and asking some math students, we couldn't find a solution. Do you know a probability distribution for this problem?

Remark: Was also posted on Math Overflow and got its answer there.

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FYI, I wouldn't post this on MO. I made the same mistake, thinking it was the StackOverflow for Math. If you read the faq it is not. –  Jonathan Fischoff Jul 25 '10 at 23:11
"The question is: how many distinct hash values would we have added in 1%, 5%, 50%, 95%, 99% of all cases?" I'm afraid I don't understand the question - there are no hash values involved here. Also, what do you mean by "what would we have added" and "in 1% of cases?" Are you asking the average number of values needed to generate to fill 1% of the array, or the average percent of the array filled after generating x values? –  BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft Jul 25 '10 at 23:27
It is not clear to me what your question is asking. It sounds like you want to choose a random position in the array, and if it is a 0, change it to a 1 with 50% probability. Then you want to find the distribution for the number of iterations it takes until the array contains n% 1's? Is that correct? –  Larry Wang Jul 26 '10 at 0:22
This question has been answer-accepted on MO. What to do on this side? Someone copy the MO answer or just close it? –  kennytm Aug 2 '10 at 8:03
From my point of view closing it would be the best alternative. –  qbi Aug 2 '10 at 11:57

III.10 in Flajolet and Sedgewick gives the Poisson answer $1−\exp(−t/n)$ when the ratio is held constant, but other asymptotic regimes are also of interest especially in hashing problems. Birthday problem is when $t=O(n^{1/2})$ and one gets statistics of the number of collisions. For t=n^k with 1/2