Chapter 5: Elements of Discrete Probability
Probability is the study of randomness, chance, and uncertainty. We experience randomness all the time–from the weather to the stock market to the results of sporting events and elections. We can never predict these things with certainty, but we can make reliable statements about the likelihood (or probability) of events occurring through careful study of patterns in the uncertainty and variables that may affect it.
The type of probability that's most important to discrete mathematics and computer science is to do with, of course, discrete sets. In this chapter, after establishing how probability works in the general sense, we will present elements of combinatorial probability. This is important in situations where each resulting outcome of a random experiment is equally likely, so that the chance that the result is in a certain set of outcomes which depends on counting the size of the set. Then, we will look at conditional...