Statistical Independence
Events and are defined to be statistically independent if:
- .
That is, the occurrence of does not affect the probability of, and vice versa. Although the derived forms may seem more intuitive, they are not the preferred definition as the conditional probabilities may be undefined if or are 0, and the preferred definition is symmetrical in and .
Read more about this topic: Conditional Probability
Famous quotes containing the word independence:
“We commonly say that the rich man can speak the truth, can afford honesty, can afford independence of opinion and action;—and that is the theory of nobility. But it is the rich man in a true sense, that is to say, not the man of large income and large expenditure, but solely the man whose outlay is less than his income and is steadily kept so.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)