Lecture Note 1

STA 121
INTRODUCTION
TO PROBABILITY
Dr. M. K. Garba
08035568461
and
Caution
Mrs. N. F. Gatta This learning material is NOT
07062680132 FOR SALE by anybody, not even
Department of Statistics, by the Class Representative.
Appropriate sanctions await the
University of Ilorin, Nigeria violators.
 Course Contents
 Probability as a Measure of Uncertainty.
 Sample Points and Events.
 Combination of Events.
 Definitions and Basic Properties of
Probability.
 Joint and Conditional Probabilities.
 Combinatorial Analysis.
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 SET THEORY
A set is a well-defined collection of objects.
Any object in the set is called an element of
the set or a member of the set.
E.g: A = {a, b, c, x, y}
A is a set containing the five elements
a, b, c, x and y.
A set may contain infinitely many elements.
For example, the set of all even numbers
E = {2, 4, 6, 8, . . . } This learning material is NOT FOR SALE 3
A set is often defined by a rule that describes
the definite property or properties which the
elements of the set must satisfy.
Example: List the elements of the set
B = {x: 1 < x < 17 and x is an even integer}

Therefore, B = {2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16}

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 SET EQUALITY
Two or more sets are said to be equal if
they have exactly the same elements.
For example, if A = {a, b, i, k, r} and
B = {k, a, b, i, r},
then A = B.
It must be noted that arrangement of the
elements in a set is not important as long as
the elements are exhaustively listed.
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 SET EQUIVALENCE
Two sets are said to be equivalent if they have
the same cardinality. The cardinality of a set is
the number of distinct elements in that set.

For example, if A = {a, e, i, o, u} and

B = {2, 4, 6, 8, 10}.
Since n(A) = n(B), then set A is said to be
equivalent to set B.

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 SUBSET
Set A is said to be a subset of set B if every
element of set A is also an element of set B.
Example: Given the sets A and B as
A = {2, 4, 6, 8, 10}
B = {1, 2, 3, . . ., 10}
Since every element of set A are contained
in set B, then A is said to be a subset of B.

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 EMPTY or NULL SET
The set that has no element is
called an empty or a null set and
denoted by ϕ or {}.

For example, a set of odd

numbers that are divisible by 2
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 UNIVERSAL SET
The universal set is the largest
set that contains all the elements
of interest in a particular
problem. All other sets are
subsets of the universal set in the
problem.
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 Example
List the elements of the following sets:
U = {all integers from 1 to 30}
A = {all odd numbers from 1 to 30}
B = {all even numbers from 1 to 30}
C = {all prime numbers from 1 to 30}
U is the Universal set while A, B and
C are subsets of the Universal set.
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 SET OPERATIONS
UNION
Let A and B be two sets, the union of A and B
written as A U B is the set of all elements in A or
in B or in both.

A B
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 INTERSECTION
Let A and B be two sets, the intersection of A
and B written as A n B is the set of all elements
that are common to both A and B.

AnB
A B
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 DISJOINT
Two sets are said to be disjoint if they
do not have any element in common.

A B

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 COMPLEMENT
Let A be a subset of the universal set. Then
the complement of A is the set of all elements
in the universal set that are not in A.
The complement of A is denoted by Ac or AꞋ.
A c

A
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 DIFFERENCE
The difference of set B from set A, written as
A – B (or A n BꞋ), is defined as the set of all
elements in A that are not in B.
Similarly, the difference of set A from set B
written as B – A (or AꞋ n B) is the set of all
elements in B that are not in A.

A-B A_B B-A

A n BꞋ AꞋ n B 15
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 Class Exercise
Given that U = {1, 2, 3, . . ., 9, 10},
A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 10}, B = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5,6},
C = {2, 5, 7} and D = {5, 6, 8, 9}.
Find (i) A u B (ii) A n B
(iii) A n D (iv) Dc
(v) A n B n C (vi) B u C u D
(vii) C – D (viii) D – C
(ix) A u B u C u D (x) A n B n C n D
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 LAWS FOR SET OPERATIONS
Commutative Laws: For any two sets, A and B,
AuB=BuA and A n B = B n A

Associative Laws: For any three sets, A, B and C,

A u (B u C) = (A u B) u C and
A n (B n C) = (A n B) n C

Distributive Laws: For any three sets, A, B and C,

A u (B n C) = (A u B) n (A u C) and
A n (B u C) = (A n B) u (A n C)
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De Morgan’s Laws: The complement of the
union of two sets is equal to the intersection
of their complements.
That is, (A u B)Ꞌ = AꞋ n BꞋ

And the complement of the intersection of

two sets is equal to the union of their
complements.
That is (A n B)Ꞌ = AꞋ u BꞋ
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 Practice
Given that U = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}, A = {1, 2, 3},
B = {3, 4, 5, 6} and C = {2, 3, 4}.
Find the following sets
(i) AꞋ (ii) A u B (iii) B n C
(iv) (A u B) n C (v) (A n B) u C
(vi) A n (B u C)Ꞌ (vii) (A u B u C)Ꞌ
(viii) (A n B n C)Ꞌ

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