ENGR 3341: Probability Theory and

Statistics Notes
Arjun K. Singh
Last Edited: August 23, 2018

Data are everywhere, and pertain to a wide variety of topics.

Descriptive statistics can apply to a Sample, a subset of a Population,
and inferential statistics can sometimes be used to predict qualities of the
population from the sample statistics gathered.
Central Tendency–Describes the center which data tends to gather around.
Examples: Mean, Median, Mode, Trimmed Mean
Measures of Variability measure how much the data varies around that
central point. They include range, variance, and standard deviation.
Probability theory bridges the gap to inferential statistics which are used
to draw conclusions about data.
Application of Probability iin a Communication System
Communication systems will transfer bits, often affected by noise, which
will result in different bits transmitted compared to bits received. Noise is a
random phenomena so we use probability theory to predict how often it will
occur.
Random experiment–the process of observing something uncertain.
Outcome — result of a random experiment.
Sample Space —set of all possible outcomes, also known as the Universal
Set. Represented by symbol S.
Event—a subset of the sample space.
Sample Spaces in given experiments:
A. The set of outcomes when a coin is tossed until a tail or 3 heads appear

S = {T, HT, HHT, HHH} (1)

Set Theory An event is a subset fo a sample space.

1
 The complement of an event A with respect to S is the subset of all
elements of S that are not in A. The complement of A is represented either
by A0 or Ac .
The intersection of two events A and B, denoted by the symbol A up-
sidedownU B, is the event containig all elements that are common to A and
B.
Two events A and B are mutually exclusive, or disjoint, if A intersect B
=θ, that is, if A and B have no elements in common.
The union of the two events a and B, denoted by the symbol A U B, is
the event containing all the elements that belong to A or B or both.
Multiplication Rule
If an operation can be performed in n1 ways, and if for each of these ways
a second operation can be prformed in n2 ways, then the two operations can
be performed together in n1 n2 ways.