HMMT-Nov 2009 team, Problem 9

Mario is once again on a quest to save Princess Peach. Mario enters Peach's castle and finds himself in a room with 4 doors. This room is the first in a sequence of 2 indistinugishable rooms. In each room, 1 door leads to the next room in the sequence (or, for the second room, into Bowser's level), while the other 3 doors lead to the first room. Suppose that in every room, Mario randomly picks a door to walk through. Suppose that instead there are 6 rooms with 4 doors. In each room, 1 door leads to the next room in the sequence (or, for the last room, Bowser's level), while the other 3 doors lead to the first room. Now what is the expected number of doors through which Mario will pass before he reaches Bowser's level?

Solution: This problem works in the same general way as the last problem, but it can be more succintly solved using the general formula, which is provided below in the solution to the next problem. $\fbox{5460}$.

Answer: 5460