L12 Probabilites

This lecture discusses the basic rules of calculation for probabilities. The first is the addition law, which is used to compute the probabiliity of UNIONS of events -- that is the probability that any one of the several events happens. The second is the multiplication law which deals with probabilities of INTERSECTIONS of events, that is the probability that ALL of the events take place. When the events are INDEPENDENT, then this probability can be computed by multiplying all of the probabilities together.

These laws are used to compute certain basic probabilities related to the Binomial Distribution. We also do some calculations for the Poisson distribution, which is based on the Binomial when the success probability is very low, but the number of trials is very large. This is called the law of rare events.

The video-taped lecture is available from LINK