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Concepts of sample
space and events
TI 2102 – Probability Theory

[Nama
Rully Tri Dosen]
Cahyono

Research Group of Industrial Systems and Techno-

Economics
Faculty of Industrial Technology, ITB

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Agenda
1. The basic principles of counting.
2. Sample space and events.
3. Relationship between sample space and events.

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The basic principle of

counting

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Introduction
• A communication system consists of n seemingly identical antennas in
a linear order.
• The system is functional if no two consecutive antennas are defective.
• If m of the n antennas are defective, what is the probability that the
system will be functional?

Antenna 1 Antenna 2 Antenna 3 ……….. Antenna n

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Introduction
• In the special case where n = 4 and m = 2.
• Six possible system configurations

0 1 1 0
0 1 0 1
1 0 1 0
0 0 1 1
1 0 0 1
1 1 0 0
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Introduction
0 1 1 0
0 1 0 1
1 0 1 0
0 0 1 1
1 0 0 1
1 1 0 0
• 3 functional, 3 not functional.
• The probability that the system is functional is 3/6 or 0,5.
• In the case of general n and m, how could we calculate the probability?
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Combinatorial analysis
• In any given case, we can count the entire configurations.
• Many problems in probability theory can be solved by counting the
number of ways that things can occur.
• We focus on a study of an effective method for counting the number
of ways that thing can occur.
• Combinatorial analysis is the mathematical theory of counting.

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The basic principle of counting

Definition 1

Suppose that two experiments are to be performed. Then if experiment

1 can result in any one of m possible outcomes and if for each outcome
of experiment 1 there are n possible outcomes of experiment 2, then
together there are mn possible outcomes of the two experiments.

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Proof the basic principle

The basic principle may be proved by enumerating all the possible
outcomes of the two experiments:

(1, 1), (1, 2), …, (1, n)

(2, 1), (2, 2), …, (1, n)
.
.
.

(m, 1), (m, 2), …, (m, n)

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Exercise the basic principle of counting

1. A small community consists of 10 women, each of whom has 3
children. If one woman and one of her children are to be chosen as
mother and child of the year, how many different choices are
possible?
2. A college planning committee consists of 3 freshmen, 4
sophomores, 5 juniors, and 2 seniors. A subcommittee of 4,
consisting of 1 person from each class, is to be chosen. How many
different subcommittees are possible?
3. How many functions defined on n points are possible if each
functional value is either 0 or 1?
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Sample space and events

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Sample space and events

Definition 2

A sample space is the set of all possible outcomes of a statistical

experiment.

Definition 3

An event is the subset of a sample space.

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Sample space
• An experiment whose outcome is not predictable with certainty.
• The set of all possible outcomes is known.
• The set is know as the sample space, denoted by S.

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Example of sample space

1. If the outcome of an experiment consists in the determination of
the sex of a newborn child, then S = {g, b}, where g and b are girl
and boy, respectively.
2. If the experiment consists of flipping two coins, then the sample
space consists of S = {(H, H), (H, T), (T, H), (T, T)}. Given (a, b), a and
b are the outcome of the first and second coins, respectively, where
H is head, and T is tail.
3. If the outcome of an experiment is the order of finish in a race
among the 7 horses having post positions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, then
S = {all 7! Permutations of (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)}.
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Exercise sample space

Define the sample space
1. If the experiment consists of tossing two dice.
2. If the experiment consists of all points in Cartesian plane on the
boundary or the interior of a circle of radius 2 with center at the
origin.
3. If the experiment consists of measuring (in hours) the lifetime of a
transistor.
4. If the experiment is measuring the cities in Indonesia with a
population over 1 million.

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Events
• Any subset E of the sample space is known as an event.
• An event is a set consisting of possible outcomes of the experiment.
• If the outcome of the experiment is contained in E, then E has
occurred.

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Example of events
1. In an experiment consists in the determination of the sex of a
newborn child, then S = {g, b}.
• If E = {g}, then E is the event that the child is a girl.
• If F = {b}, then F is the event that the child is a boy.
2. In an experiment consists of flipping two coins, then the sample
space consists of S = {(H, H), (H, T), (T, H), (T, T)}.
• If E = {(H, H), {(H, T)}, then E is the event that a head appears on the first coin.

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Example of events
3. If the outcome of an experiment is the order of finish in a race
among the 7 horses having post positions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, then
S = {all 7! Permutations of (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)}.
• If E = {all outcomes in S starting with a 3}, then E is the event that horse 3 wins
the race.

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Exercise events
Explain the interpretation of these events
1. In an experiment consists of tossing two dices, if E = {(1, 6), (2, 5),
(3, 4), (4, 3), (5, 2), (6, 1)}.
2. In an experiment consists of measuring (in hours) the lifetime of a
transistor, if E = {x: 0 ≤ x ≤ 5}.

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Relationship between
sample space and events

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Union
Definition 3.1
The union of two events E and F of a sample space S, denoted by the
new event 𝐸 ∪ 𝐹, is the event containing all outcomes that are either in
E or in F or in both E and F. The event 𝐸 ∪ 𝐹 will occur if either E or F
occurs.

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Example of union
1. In an experiment consists in the determination of the sex of a
newborn child, if event E = {g}, and F = {b} then 𝐸 ∪ 𝐹 = {g, b}.
2. In an experiment consists of flipping two coins, if E = {(H, H), (H, T)}
and F = {(T, H)}, then 𝐸 ∪ 𝐹 = {(H, H), (H, T), (T, H)}.

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Intersection
Definition 3.2
For any two events E and F, then new event EF, is the intersection of E
and F, to consist of all outcomes that are both in E and in F. The event
EF, or E ∩ F will occur only if both E and F occur.

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Example of intersection
• In an experiment consists of flipping two coins
• If E = {(H, H), (H, T), (T, H)} is the event that at least one head occurs.
• If F = {(H, T), (T, H), (T, T)} is the event that at least one tail occurs.
• Then E ∩ F = {(H, T), (T, H)}.

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Mutually exclusive
Definition 3.3
Two events E and F are mutually exclusive or disjoint if E ∩ F = ∅ when
E and F have no elements in common.

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Example of intersection
• In an experiment consists of tossing two dices
• If E = {(1, 6), (2, 5), (3, 4), (4, 3), (5, 2), (6, 1)} is the event that the sum of the
dice is 7.
• If E = {(1, 5), (2, 4), (3, 3), (4, 2), (5, 1)} is the event that the sum of the dice is
6.
• Then E ∩ F = ∅.
• E ∩ F is mutually exclusive.

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Union of more than two events

If E1, E2, … are events, the union of these events, denoted by ‫∞ڂ‬
𝑛=1 𝐸𝑛 ,
is defined to be that event which consists of all outcomes that are in En
for at least one value of n = 1, 2, ….

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Intersection of more than two events

The intersection of the events En, denoted by ‫∞ځ‬
𝑛=1 𝐸𝑛 , is defined to be
the event consisting of those outcomes that are in all of the events En,
n = 1, 2, ….

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Complement
Definition 3.4
For any event E, the new event Ec or E’ is the complement of E, to
consist of all outcomes in the sample space S that are not in E. Ec will
occur if and only if E does not occur.

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Example of complement
• In an experiment consists of tossing two dices
• If E = {(1, 6), (2, 5), (3, 4), (4, 3), (5, 2), (6, 1)} is the event that the sum of the
dice is 7.
• Then Ec will occur when the sum of the dice does not equal to 7.
• Since the experiment must result in some outcome, it follows that Sc = ∅.

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Contained
Definition 3.5
For any two events E and F, if all the outcomes in E are also in F, then E
is contained in F as denoted by E  F.

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Some important rules

Commutative laws EF=FE
Associative laws (E  F)  G = E  (F  G)
Distributive laws (E  F) G = EG  FG

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Thank You

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