Understanding Conditional Probability in Probability Theory | Explained with Examples

Conditional Probability

Conditional probability is a concept in probability theory that measures the probability of an event occurring given that another event has already occurred

Conditional probability is a concept in probability theory that measures the probability of an event occurring given that another event has already occurred. It is denoted as P(A|B), which reads as “the probability of event A given event B”.

To calculate the conditional probability, we use the formula:

P(A|B) = P(A ∩ B) / P(B)

where P(A ∩ B) denotes the probability of both events A and B occurring simultaneously, and P(B) represents the probability of event B occurring.

An intuitive way to understand conditional probability is through an example. Let’s say we have a deck of cards, and we draw one card from it. We are interested in finding the probability of drawing a red card given that the card drawn is a heart.

First, we need to determine the probability of drawing a heart from the deck, which is 13/52 since there are 13 hearts out of 52 cards. Next, we need to find the probability of drawing a red card, which is 26/52 since half of the cards in a deck are red.

To calculate the conditional probability, we divide the probability of drawing a red heart (which is only 13/52 cards) by the probability of drawing a heart (13/52):

P(Red|Heart) = (13/52) / (13/52) = 1

The result shows that if we already know that the card drawn is a heart, then the probability of it being red is 1 or 100%. This is because all hearts in the deck are red.

In general, conditional probability helps us update our probability estimates based on new information. It allows us to consider the relationship between events and adjust probabilities accordingly.

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