Probability Vocabulary
This term refers to the collection of all possible outcomes of an experiment.
What is the sample space?
This type of probability measures the chance that two events happen at the same time, such as drawing a card that is both red and an ace.
What is a joint probability?
This continuous distribution is bell-shaped and symmetrical, with mean, median, and mode all equal.
What is the normal distribution?
This numerical measure of the likelihood that an event will occur must lie between 0 and 1, inclusive.
What is probability?
This type of probability looks at just one event by itself, like the overall chance of drawing an ace, without regard to any other event.
What is a marginal (simple) probability?
For a normal distribution, this parameter determines where the curve is centered.
What is the mean, μ?
This approach to assessing probability assigns probabilities based on prior knowledge of a process, such as each face of a fair die being equally likely.
What is a priori (classical) probability?
This type of probability describes the chance of one event happening, given that we already know another event has occurred.
What is a conditional probability?
For a normal distribution, this parameter determines how spread out the curve is.
What is the standard deviation, σ?
This type of event can be described by a single characteristic, such as drawing a red card from a deck.
What is a simple event?
In a contingency table, the row and column totals (rather than the values inside the table) are used to find this type of probability.
What is a marginal probability?
What is the standard deviation, σ?This is the theoretical range of the random variable X for any normal distribution.
What is negative infinity to positive infinity?
This approach to probability is based on an individual's personal judgment or opinion about whether an outcome will occur.
What is subjective probability?
On a used-car lot, knowing a car has air conditioning changes how likely it is to also have a CD player. This tells us the two features are NOT this.
What is independent (i.e., they are dependent events)?
Among continuous distributions, this is the shape of a distribution that ranges from zero to positive infinity and has its mean greater than its median.
What is a right-skewed distribution?