Basic Urn Model
In this basic urn model in probability theory, the urn contains x white and y black balls, well-mixed together. One ball is drawn randomly from the urn and its color observed; it is then placed back in the urn (or not), and the selection process is repeated.
Possible questions that can be answered in this model are:
- Can I infer the proportion of white and black balls from n observations? With what degree of confidence?
- Knowing x and y, what is the probability of drawing a specific sequence (e.g. one white followed by one black)?
- If I only observe n white balls, how sure can I be that there are no black balls? (A variation on the first question)
Read more about this topic: Urn Problem
Famous quotes containing the words basic and/or model:
“For a novelist, a given historic situation is an anthropologic laboratory in which he explores his basic question: What is human existence?”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“Socrates, who was a perfect model in all great qualities, ... hit on a body and face so ugly and so incongruous with the beauty of his soul, he who was so madly in love with beauty.”
—Michel de Montaigne (15331592)