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1 - Probability Concepts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 October 2017

Alan D. Chave
Affiliation:
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts
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Summary

This chapter introduces the probability concepts of experiments, events, distributions, random variables and expectation through Matlab examples. It then outlines set theory and the three actions complement, union and intersection using Venn diagrams. The Kolmogorov axioms that constitute the basis for probability theory are described, and used to derive the General Law of Addition that is applied throughout statistics. Permutation and combination are introduced, leading to the concepts of sampling with and without replacement. The probability of a union of events is derived, yielding marginal and joint probabilities. Conditional probability links the joint and marginal probabiilities. Independent events yield a joint probability that is the product of the marginal probabilities. Finally, Bayes’ Theorem is derived, leading to the concepts of prior and posterior distributions in Bayesian statistics.
Type
Chapter
Information
Computational Statistics in the Earth Sciences
With Applications in MATLAB
, pp. xi - xiv
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2017

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  • Probability Concepts
  • Alan D. Chave, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts
  • Book: Computational Statistics in the Earth Sciences
  • Online publication: 06 October 2017
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316156100.002
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Probability Concepts
  • Alan D. Chave, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts
  • Book: Computational Statistics in the Earth Sciences
  • Online publication: 06 October 2017
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316156100.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Probability Concepts
  • Alan D. Chave, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts
  • Book: Computational Statistics in the Earth Sciences
  • Online publication: 06 October 2017
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316156100.002
Available formats
×