2/17/2014

Importance of Having Sample Space Defined

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Importance of Having Sample Space Defined

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An innocent question has been posted to the Mathematics group on Facebook:

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Hi, I'm an amateur so I'm sorry if this is something well known and uninteresting. Is 1 + 1 = 1 in probability theory?: Consider tossing a coin and throwing a dice. Let the set of all possible outcomes for the coin be C. which implies p(C) = 1. Let the set of all possible outcomes for the dice be D, which implies p(D) = 1. Now p(CD) which is the probability that either the events D or C occur is also 1. Here's the interesting bit: C and D are disjoint sets and therefore p(CD)= p(C) + P(D) which implies 1 = 1 + 1. But then I started having doubts because I made some unproved assumptions such as p(C) and p(D) and so on, are actually defined in such a situation as this and whether C and D are truly disjoint. Help!

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Importance of Having Sample Space Defined

The question is indeed about your sample space. If you throw either dice or a coin but you do not know (or do not specify) which then the sample space is {H, T, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6} so that P(C) = 1 and P(D) = 1 are both false. If you throw both a dice and a coin then the sample space is {H, T} {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6} in which case the events C and D are simply not defined. If you just throw a coin then certainly P(C) = 1. If, in another experiment, you throw a dice then, too, P(D) = 1. But in this case the event CD is undefined because the events C and D do not belong to the same space.

What Is Probability? Intuitive Probability Probability Problems Sample Spaces and Random Variables Importance of Having Sample Space Defined Probabilities Example: A Poker Hand Bernoulli Trials Binomial Distribution Proofreading Example Continuous Sample Spaces Geometric Probability Conditional Probability Bayes' Theorem Bayesian Odds Bayes' Ratio: Dramatic Taxicab Example Principle of Proportionality Conditional Recurrence Laplace's Rule of Succession Dependent and Independent Events Conditional Probability and Independent Events Mutually (Jointly) Independent Events Independent Events and Independent Experiments Algebra of Random Variables Expectation Admittance to a Tennis Club Number of Trials to First Success Probability Generating Functions Sicherman Dice Probability of Two Integers Being Coprime Random Walks Probabilistic Method
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Importance of Having Sample Space Defined

Probability Paradoxes Bertrand's Paradox Monty Hall dilemma Parrondo Paradox Symmetry Principle in Probability

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A. Bogomolny, Importance of Having Sample Space Defined from Interactive Mathematics Miscellany and Puzzles http://www.cut-the-knot.org/Probability/SampleSpacesImportance.shtml, Accessed 17 February 2014

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