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In probability theory, an event is a subset of outcomes of an experiment (a subset of the sample space) to which a probability is assigned. [1] A single outcome may be an element of many different events, [2] and different events in an experiment are usually not equally likely, since they may include very different groups of outcomes. [3]
For example, when tossing an ordinary coin, one typically assumes that the outcomes "head" and "tail" are equally likely to occur. An implicit assumption that all outcomes are equally likely underpins most randomization tools used in common games of chance (e.g. rolling dice, shuffling cards, spinning tops or wheels, drawing lots, etc.).
Probability is a branch of mathematics and statistics concerning events and numerical descriptions of how likely they are to occur. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and 1; the larger the probability, the more likely an event is to occur. [note 1] [1] [2] This number is often expressed as a percentage (%), ranging from 0% to 100 ...
In probability theory and statistics, the discrete uniform distribution is a symmetric probability distribution wherein each of some finite whole number n of outcome values are equally likely to be observed. Thus every one of the n outcome values has equal probability 1/n. Intuitively, a discrete uniform distribution is "a known, finite number ...
However, the conclusion that the sun is equally likely to rise as it is to not rise is only absurd when additional information is known, such as the laws of gravity and the sun's history. Similar applications of the concept are effectively instances of circular reasoning , with "equally likely" events being assigned equal probabilities, which ...
The probability of the event that the sum + is five is , since four of the thirty-six equally likely pairs of outcomes sum to five. If the sample space was all of the possible sums obtained from rolling two six-sided dice, the above formula can still be applied because the dice rolls are fair, but the number of outcomes in a given event will vary.
Here, an "event" is a set of zero or more outcomes; that is, a subset of the sample space. An event is considered to have "happened" during an experiment when the outcome of the latter is an element of the event. Since the same outcome may be a member of many events, it is possible for many events to have happened given a single outcome.
The classical definition of probability works well for situations with only a finite number of equally-likely outcomes. This can be represented mathematically as follows: If a random experiment can result in N mutually exclusive and equally likely outcomes and if N A of these outcomes result in the occurrence of the event A , the probability of ...