Probability

A property of a physical, biological or social system can generally assume different quantitative or qualitative values.

For example, the sex of a human being can be male or female; the stage of its life can be the childhood, the adolescence, the maturity or the oldness. Sex and stage of life are qualitative properties. Moreover a human being has age and height, both usually expressed by numbers. Age and height are quantitative properties.

The set, that can be discrete or continuous, of all the values that can be assumed by one or more properties of a system is the sample space or, more simply, the sample, S.

For example, the sample space of the outcomes of a roll of a dice is S={1,2,3,4,5,6}.

The events are subset as E₁ = {1}, E₂ = {2}, E₃ = {3}, E₄ = {4}, E₅ = {5}, E₆ = {6}, E₁₂ = {1,2}, E₂₄₆ = {2,4,6}, etc.

The equality (2.4) gives
so, if , we have

We have also

If a sample space S is the cartesian product of two other sample spaces S_x and S_y and

, the symbol

(the probability of E_y given E_x) represents the probability of the event

. E is a compound event.

, the events E_x and E_y are said mutually independent, or, more simply, independent; otherwise they are dependent.

If, for example, a box contains three balls, one red, one green and one blue and we draw a ball at random, the probability p(R) to draw a red ball is .

If we do two consecutive extractions E_x and E_y, we have a compound event that is different depending on whether after the first extraction of a ball we put or not the ball in the box.

In the first case the sample space is .
There are 3 cases out of 9 in which the second ball is red, so . Then in this case the probability that the second ball is red is equal to the probability p(E_y)=p(R) of drawing a red ball in a single extraction: the events E_x and E_y are independent.

In the second case the sample space is and, as it is obvious, the second ball cannot be red: p(E_y|E_x)=0≠p(E_y).
The events E_x and E_y are dependent.

What is the probability that in a set of n randomly chosen people, two of them have the same birthday?

Let be p(n) the requested probability. The problem is easier if we first calculate the opposite probability . For simplicity's sake we do not consider the leap years and we assume that all dates of birth have equal probability.

If there are n=2 people, the probability that the second was born on a different day from the first is
If there are n=3 people, the probability that all were born on different days is
If there are n=4 people, the probability that all were born on different days is
In general, by induction:
Finally:

For example, the probability that out of 80 people, there are 2 with the same birthday is : it is virtually certain that two people have the same birthday.

We could achieve the same result by using combinatorial methods. In fact, q(n) is given by the ratio between the combinations C_365,n (that is all the set of n birthdays) and the permutations with repetition P_365,n, noting that the permutations of the same elements are indistinguishable and should be counted only once.

Let S be the sample space of the outcomes of an experiment and

two events such that

If e is an outcome of the experiment, what is the probability that, in n repetitions of the same experiment,

k times?

We assume that the outcomes of the experiments are independent of each other and, for simplicity, we let

so we can write

.
q is said the opposite probability with respect to p.

The probability that

in k experiments and that

in the remaining n-k experiments is

Examples.

If we roll a dice ten times, what is the probability of getting 1 two times?

The probability of getting 1 in a single throw of a dice is , so . From (2.9) we have
What is the probability of getting 1 at least once?

We may calculate the probability of not ever get 1:

and then calculate the opposite probability

Let S be the sample space of an experiment and E_k (k from 1 to n) events of S such that

Example.

In a school there are 600 girls and 400 boys. 40% of girls and 30% of kids have good grades in math. What is the probability that a student of that school has good grades in math?

Let be p(E) the requested probability, p(E₁) the probability that a student is a girl, p(E₂) the probability that a student is a boy, p(E|E₁) the probability that a girls has good grades in math and p(E|E₂) the same probability for a boy.

From (2.12) we get

More elementary:

600·40% = 240 girls have good grades;
400·30% = 120 boys have good grades;
students with good grades are 240+120 = 360 out of 1000;
the requested probability is 360/1000 = 36%.

In the previous example, what is the probability that a student with good grades is a girl?

From the equality (2.13) we get

More elementary:

240 girls have good grades;
120 boys have good grades;
students with good grades are 360;
girls are 240 out of 360;
the requested probability is 240/360 = 66.7%.

2. Probability.