Builds on algebra
Probability
Work with uncertainty, distributions, and the evidence that changes what you believe.
Inside this subject
Read at your own pace01Events and probability6 lessons
- 01Sample spaces
Specify outcomes fine enough to describe a finite experiment.
- 02Events
Represent an event as a subset of a sample space.
- 03Probability assignments
Check a finite probability assignment for nonnegativity and unit total.
- 04Event probabilities
Compute an event probability by summing disjoint outcome masses.
- 05Union probabilities
Compute a two-event union probability with overlap correction.
- 06Disjoint events
Determine whether two events are mutually exclusive.
02Conditioning and Bayes5 lessons
- 01Conditional probability
Compute an event probability within a positive-probability conditioning event.
- 02Probability multiplication
Compute an intersection using a conditional probability.
- 03Partitions
Verify that a collection of events partitions the sample space.
- 04Total probability
Compute an event probability across an exhaustive disjoint case split.
- 05Bayes' rule
Reverse a conditional probability using a prior and total evidence probability.
03Independence and evidence3 lessons
04Random variables and mass4 lessons
- 01Random variables
Define a numerical random variable on a finite sample space.
- 02Probability mass functions
Construct a discrete random variable's probability mass function.
- 03Cumulative distributions
Compute a discrete cumulative distribution at a threshold.
- 04Reading probabilities from a CDF
Compute P(a < X ≤ b) by subtracting supplied CDF values at the endpoints.
05Expectation and spread6 lessons
- 01Expected values
Compute a finite random variable's expectation.
- 02Expected transformed values
Compute the expectation of a function of a discrete random variable.
- 03Linearity of expectation
Compute the expectation of a linear combination without assuming independence.
- 04Variance
Compute variance as expected squared deviation from the mean.
- 05Standard deviation
Express spread in the original variable's units.
- 06Variance under scaling
Compute variance after a scalar shift and scale.
06Densities and continuous moments1 lessons
07Continuous distribution families3 lessons
08Joint mass and reference distributions5 lessons
- 01Joint mass functions
Construct a joint discrete distribution over paired values.
- 02Discrete marginals
Marginalize a joint mass table over one variable.
- 03Independent variables
Check factorization of a discrete joint distribution into its marginals.
- 04Chi-squared distributions
Identify a chi-squared variable as a sum of squared independent standard-normal variables.
- 05Student’s t distributions
Interpret a supplied standard-normal to scaled-chi-squared ratio as a t variable under independence.
09Dependence and conditional means3 lessons
10Random vectors1 lessons
11Repeated random behavior8 lessons
- 01IID samples
Check the identical-distribution and independence assumptions in a sampling story.
- 02Sample mean variability
Compute the variance of an IID sample mean with finite variance.
- 03Markov's inequality
Bound a nonnegative variable's upper tail from its mean.
- 04Chebyshev's inequality
Bound a deviation probability using finite variance.
- 05Law of large numbers
Interpret convergence of an IID sample average under a stated finite-variance assumption.
- 06Central limit theorem
Form a normal approximation for a standardized IID sum with finite positive variance.
- 07CLT limitations
Diagnose a normal approximation undermined by the sampling assumptions or heavy tails.
- 08Monte Carlo estimation
Estimate an expectation with a supplied set of independent simulated draws.
12Information4 lessons
- 01Surprisal
Compute the information associated with a positive-probability event.
- 02Entropy
Compute entropy of a finite probability distribution.
- 03Cross-entropy
Compute expected negative log probability under a supplied target distribution.
- 04KL divergence
Compute a finite-distribution KL divergence with valid support handling.