Mutually exclusive events
Definition
Two events that cannot both occur in the same trial. If a fibre is classified as cotton, it cannot simultaneously be classified as polyester under the same classification scheme. Mutually exclusive events obey the simple addition rule: P(A or B) = P(A) + P(B).
Related terms
- Complement
- A group of heat-labile serum proteins (approximately 30 proteins, designated C1 through C9 in the classical pathway) that can be activated by...
- Conditional probability
- The probability of event A given that event B has already occurred, written P(A|B). Conditional probability is the basis of the multiplication...
- Event
- Any subset of the sample space to which a probability is assigned. An event may be a single outcome (this particular allele)...
- Independent events
- Two events where the occurrence of one provides no information about the other: P(A and B) = P(A) x P(B). In forensic...
- Sample space
- The set of all possible outcomes of an experiment. In forensic genetics, the sample space for a single allele call is the...
Explained in
- Basic Probability RulesTwo events that cannot both occur in the same trial. If a fibre is classified as cotton, it cannot simultaneously be classified as polyester under the same cla...