Probability¶

Sample space

Sample space \(\Omega\) defines all the outcomes of a random experiment.

Event space Set of events F denotes all the possible outcomes of an experiment, thus it is a subset of \(\Omega\)

Probability measure

Is a function \(P: F \rightarrow R\) which satisfies the following properties:

  • \(P(A) \ge 0, \forall A \in F\)

  • If \(A_1, A_2, \cdots\) are disjoint then \(P(\cup_i A_i) = \sum_i P(A_i)\)

  • \(P(\Omega) = 1\)

There three are the Axioms of probability from these three we can deriive others:

  • \(0 \le P(a) \le 1\)

  • \(P(A \cap B) \le \min(P(A), P(B))\)

  • Union bound \(P(A \cup B) \le P(A) + P(B)\)

  • \(P(\Omega - A) = 1 - P(A)\)

  • Law of total probility

In general this function takes an event from the sample space and asigns it to the real line.

Joint probability¶

The join probability of event A and B as: $\( P(A,B) = P(A \cap B) \)$

Marginalization:¶

We sum over all the possible states of one event: $\(P(A) = \sum_b P(A,B=b)\)$

This is also known as the law of total probability.

Conditional probability¶

Let B an event with non-zero probability. The conditional probability of any event A given B is defined as

\[ P(A|B) = \frac{P(A \cap B)}{P(B)} \]

In other words it is the probability measure of the event A after observing the occurrence of event B.

Union of mutliple events¶

Given event A and B the probabiility that A or B will happen is:

\[ P(A \cup B) = P(A) + P(B) - P(A \cap B) \]

or

\[P(A \cup B) = P(A) + P(B)\]

If they are mutualy exclusive.

In case we have more than 2 events we follow the inclusion exclusion rule