Probability Vocabulary

Question 1

Probability

Answer 1

Probability: the chance or likelihood of some event occurring

Question 2

Event

Answer 2

• Event: a group of outcomes that share a feature of interest; a subset of the sample space
• Ex., the probability of a mean of > 4.3 in the Gettysburg address

Question 3

Compare simple and compound events

Answer 3

• Simple events: happen only one way (contains only one outcome)
  
  • Ex., flipping a TT
• Compound events: happen in multiple ways (contain more than one outcome)
  
  • Ex., flipping at least 1 head (HT, HH, TH)

Question 4

Sample space

Answer 4

Sample space: collection of all possible outcomes for an experiment

Question 5

Compare continuous and discrete sample space

Answer 5

• Continuous sample space: requires specification of the interval (infinite) of values over which the outcomes occur
  
  • Ex., the mean values from the Gettysburg address
• Discrete sample space: a countable number (list) of outcomes
  
  • Ex., the possible outcomes from flipping a coin twice

Question 6

Mutually exclusive event

Answer 6

• An event with no shared outcomes

Question 7

Independent event

Answer 7

• Occur in tandem, and the probability of one event is not influenced by the other
• P(A&B) = P(A) x P(B)

Question 8

Conditional event

Answer 8

• The probability of event B knowing that event A has already occurred
• P(B|A) = P(A) x P(B)/P(B)