Math 203 Formula List
Midterm Winter 2025
1. Sample variance (s2 ) and sample standard deviation (s) by definition
n
X (xi − x̄)2
s2 =
i=1
n−1
v
u n
√ uX (xi − x̄)2
s2 = s = t
i=1
n−1
2. The computing formula for s2 and s
n Pn !
21 X ( i=1 xi )2
s = x2i −
n−1 i=1
n
v !
u n Pn
u 1 X ( i=1 xi )2
s=t x2i −
n−1 i=1
n
3. Complement Rule:
P (Ac ) = 1 − P (A)
4. Probability of an Impossible Event:
P (ϕ) = 0
5. Set Difference Rule:
P (A ∩ B c ) = P (A) − P (A ∩ B)
6. Subset Rule :
If A ⊆ B then P (A) ≤ P (B)
7. Union Rule:
P (A ∪ B) = P (A) + P (B) − P (A ∩ B)
8. Empirical Rule: For a symmetric and mound shaped distribution
1
• Approximately 68% of data falls within one standard deviation of the
mean:
P (µ − σ ≤ X ≤ µ + σ) ≈ 0.68
• Approximately 95% of data falls within two standard deviations of
the mean:
P (µ − 2σ ≤ X ≤ µ + 2σ) ≈ 0.95
• Approximately 99.7% of data falls within three standard deviations
of the mean:
P (µ − 3σ ≤ X ≤ µ + 3σ) ≈ 0.997
9. For any distribution and for k > 1:
• At least 1
k2 of the data lies outside k standard deviations of the mean:
1
P (|X − µ| ≥ kσ) ≤
k2
• At least 1 − 1
k2 of the data lies within k standard deviations of the
mean:
1
P (µ − kσ ≤ X ≤ µ + kσ) ≥ 1 −
k2
• For k = 2, at least 75% of data falls within two standard deviations:
P (µ − 2σ ≤ X ≤ µ + 2σ) ≥ 0.75
• For k = 3, at least 88.89% of data falls within three standard devia-
tions:
P (µ − 3σ ≤ X ≤ µ + 3σ) ≥ 0.8889
10. Conditional Probability:
P (A ∩ B)
P (B|A) = , where P (A) ̸= 0.
P (A)
11. Multiplication Rule for Conditional Probability
Let A1 and A2 are two events then,
P (A1 ∩ A2 ) = P (A2 |A1 ).P (A1 )
, P (A1 ) ̸= 0
12. Extending the Multiplication Rule for Conditional Probability to three
events.
Let A1 , A2 , A3 be three events, then
P (A1 ∩ A2 ∩ A3 ) = P (A1 ).P (A2 |A1 ).P (A3 |A1 ∩ A2 )
2
13. Independence:
P (A ∩ B) = P (A)P (B).
14. Expected Value of a Discrete Random Variable:
X
E(X) = xP (X = x).
x
15. Variance Formula:
The variance of a discrete random variable X is given by:
X
V (X) = E (X − µ)2 = (x − µ)2 P (X = x),
all x
where µ = E(X) is the expected value (mean) of X.
Or
X
V (X) = x2 P (X = x) − µ2
allx
16. The Law of Total Probability:
Let {B1 , B2 ......Bk } is a partition of S, such that P (B) > 0, for i =
1, 2, ...k. Then for any event A in S,
k
X
P (A) = P (A|Bi )P (Bi )
i=1
17. Bayes’ Theorem:
Let {B1 , B2 ......Bk } is a partition of S, such that P (Bi ) > 0, for i =
1, 2, ...k. Then for any event A in S,
P (A|Bi )P (Bi )
P (Bi |A) = Pk
i=1 P (A|Bi )P (Bi )
18. Let S be a finite sample space with N equally likely events and let E be
an event in S. Then
n
P (E) =
N
Where n = number of outcomes in E that is the number of possible ways
E can occur
and N = the number of outcomes in S
19. The Distributive Laws
3
• The distribution of intersection over union
A ∩ (B ∪ C) = (A ∩ B) ∪ (A ∩ C)
• The distribution of union over intersection
A ∪ (B ∩ C) = (A ∪ B) ∩ (A ∪ C)
20. De Morgan’s Laws
• (A ∩ B)c = Ac ∪ B c
• (A ∪ B)c = Ac ∩ B c