Introduction to Probability
Probability is a branch of mathematics that deals with the likelihood of events occurring. It
quantifies uncertainty and is used extensively in statistics, finance, gambling, science, and
everyday decision-making.
Basic Concepts
Experiment: An action or process that results in one or several outcomes (e.g., rolling a
die).
Sample Space (S): The set of all possible outcomes of an experiment (e.g., for a die,
S={1,2,3,4,5,6}S = \{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6\}S={1,2,3,4,5,6}).
Event: A subset of the sample space (e.g., rolling an even number, E={2,4,6}E = \{2, 4,
6\}E={2,4,6}).
Probability Formula
The probability PPP of an event EEE occurring is given by:
P(E)=Number of favorable outcomesTotal number of possible outcomesP(E) = \frac{\
text{Number of favorable outcomes}}{\text{Total number of possible
outcomes}}P(E)=Total number of possible outcomesNumber of favorable outcomes
Example:
If we roll a fair six-sided die, the probability of rolling a 4 is: P(4)=16P(4) = \frac{1}{6}P(4)=61
If we roll a die, the probability of getting an even number (2, 4, or 6) is: P(even)=36=12P(\
text{even}) = \frac{3}{6} = \frac{1}{2}P(even)=63=21
Complementary Events
The probability of an event not occurring is called the complement of the event. If P(E)P(E)P(E)
is the probability of event EEE occurring, the probability of EEE not occurring is 1−P(E)1 -
P(E)1−P(E).
Example:
If the probability of raining today is 0.3, the probability of not raining is 1−0.3=0.71 - 0.3 =
0.71−0.3=0.7.
Understanding probability helps in making informed predictions and decisions in various fields
such as science, economics, and everyday life.
