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Viewing Version 1 of 'conditional probability'
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Title of object: conditional probability
Canonical Name: ConditionalProbability
Type: Definition

Created on: 2002-02-18 02:56:03
Modified on: 2002-02-18 02:56:03

Creator: yark
Modifier: yark
Author: drummond

Classification: msc:03B48

Revision comment (for changes between this and next version):

changes for correction #7166

Preamble:

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Content:

Let $(\Omega, \borel, \mu)$ be a probability space, and let $X$ and $Y$ be random variables on $\Omega$ with joint probability distribution $\mu(X,Y) \defined \mu(X \cap Y)$.

The \emph{conditional probability} of $X$ given $Y$ is defined as
\begin{equation}
\mu(X|Y) \defined \frac{\mu(X \cap Y)}{\mu(Y)}.
\end{equation}

In general,
\begin{equation}
\mu(X|Y)\mu(Y) = \mu(X,Y) = \mu(Y|X)\mu(X),
\end{equation}
and so we have
\begin{equation}
\mu(X|Y) = \frac{\mu(Y | X)\mu(X)}{\mu(Y)}.
\end{equation}