
Oct. 6, 2009 Stat 111 - Lecture 8 - Probability 1
Probability
Statistics 111 - Lecture 8
Oct. 6, 2009 Stat 111 - Lecture 8 - Probability 2
Administrative Notes
• Homework 2 due in recitation: Friday, Oct. 9
• Homework 3 now posted on course website:
http://stat.wharton.upenn.edu/~stjensen/stat111.html
• Recitation is cancelled for Friday, Oct. 16th
• Homework 3 must be submitted to your TAs
mailbox (Huntsman Hall 4th floor) by noon on
Friday, Oct 16th
Oct. 6, 2009 Stat 111 - Lecture 8 - Probability 3
Why do we need Probability?
• We have several graphical and numerical
statistics for summarizing our data
• We want to make probability statements
about the significance of our statistics
• Eg. In our class, mean(height) = 66.7 inches
• What is the chance that the true height of Penn
students is between 60 and 70 inches?
• Eg. r = -0.22 for draft order and birthday
• What is the chance that the true correlation is
significantly different from zero?
Oct. 6, 2009 Stat 111 - Lecture 8 - Probability 4
Deterministic vs. Random Processes
• In deterministic processes, the outcome can
be predicted exactly in advance
• Eg. Force = mass x acceleration. If we are given
values for mass and acceleration, we exactly know
the value of force
• In random processes, the outcome is not
known exactly, but we can still describe the
probability distribution of possible outcomes
• Eg. 10 coin tosses: we don’t know exactly how
many heads we will get, but we can calculate the
probability of getting a certain number of heads
Oct. 6, 2009 Stat 111 - Lecture 8 - Probability 5
Events
• An event is an outcome or a set of outcomes of
a random process
Example: Tossing a coin three times
Event A = getting two heads = {HTH, HHT, THH}
Example: Picking real number X between 1 and 20
Event A = chosen number is over 8.23 = {X ≤ 8.23}
Example: Tossing a fair dice
Event A = result is an even number = {2, 4, 6}
• Notation: P(A) = Probability of event A
Oct. 6, 2009 Stat 111 - Lecture 8 - Probability 6
Combinations of Events
• The complement Ac of an event A is the event that A
does not occur
• Complement Rule : P(Ac) = 1 - P(A)
• The union of two events A and B is the event that
either A or B or both occurs
• The intersection of two events A and B is the event
that both A and B occur
Event A Complement of A Union of A and B Intersection of A and B