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Independent Events Explained with Examples

1) The document discusses independent and mutually exclusive events using examples with a coin and die. Rolling a head (A) or 6 (B) are independent as the outcome of one does not impact the other. The probability of both is the product of individual probabilities. 2) It also provides an example of mutually exclusive events using a die with even/odd colored faces. Rolling a green face (A) or 6 (B) cannot occur simultaneously, making their joint probability 0. 3) Mutually exclusive events are necessarily dependent, as the occurrence of one prevents the other from occurring, unlike independent events where outcomes do not impact one another.

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Anas Ridhwan
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102 views1 page

Independent Events Explained with Examples

1) The document discusses independent and mutually exclusive events using examples with a coin and die. Rolling a head (A) or 6 (B) are independent as the outcome of one does not impact the other. The probability of both is the product of individual probabilities. 2) It also provides an example of mutually exclusive events using a die with even/odd colored faces. Rolling a green face (A) or 6 (B) cannot occur simultaneously, making their joint probability 0. 3) Mutually exclusive events are necessarily dependent, as the occurrence of one prevents the other from occurring, unlike independent events where outcomes do not impact one another.

Uploaded by

Anas Ridhwan
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

If two events A and B are independent a real-life example is the following.

Consider a fair
coin and a fair six-sided die. Let event A be obtaining heads, and event B be rolling a 6.
Then we can reasonably assume that events A and B are independent, because the
outcome of one does not affect the outcome of the other. The probability that both A and
B occur is
P(A and B) = P(A)P(B) = (1/2)(1/6) = 1/12.

An example of a mutually exclusive event is the following. Consider a fair six-sided die as
before, only in addition to the numbers 1 through 6 on each face, we have the property
that the even-numbered faces are colored red, and the odd-numbered faces are colored
green. Let event A be rolling a green face, and event B be rolling a 6. Then
P(A) = 1/2 P(B) = 1/6

as in our previous example. But it is obvious that events A and B cannot simultaneously
occur, since rolling a 6 means the face is red, and rolling a green face means the number
showing is odd. Therefore

P(A and B) = 0.

Therefore, we see that a mutually exclusive pair of nontrivial events are also necessarily
dependent events. This makes sense because if A and B are mutually exclusive, then if A
occurs, then B cannot also occur; and vice versa. This stands in contrast to saying the
outcome of A does not affect the outcome of B, which is independence of events.

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